A few years ago, responding to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revised its rules of procedure governing administrative enforcement actions to explicitly require that administrative remedies be exhausted for an aggrieved party to obtain federal court review. This change raises fundamental questions about federal court jurisdiction and the availability of federal judicial review of agency action. While the discussion below is focused on EPA practice, it serves as a window on some general aspects concerning the interface between administrative proceedings and federal court practice.
Exhaustion of administrative remedies is a well-established doctrine in law.1 Essentially it obligates a party to obtain intra-agency “appellate” review of an adverse administrative adjudication before seeking judicial review. As the Supreme Court has observed, “Exhaustion is required because it serves the twin purposes of protecting administrative agency authority and promoting judicial efficiency.”2
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