Atlantic Fish Spotters Ass'n v. Evans

• Decision Date: 25 February 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02-1899.,02-1899.
• Citation: 321 F.3d 220
• Parties: ATLANTIC FISH SPOTTERS ASSOCIATION, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. Donald L. EVANS, as he is Secretary of Commerce, et al., Defendants, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

321 F.3d 220

ATLANTIC FISH SPOTTERS ASSOCIATION, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. Donald L. EVANS, as he is Secretary of Commerce, et al., Defendants, Appellees.

No. 02-1899.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard January 7, 2003.

Decided February 25, 2003.

Charles Tiefer, with whom David E. Frulla, Andrew D. Herman, Brand & Frulla, PC, H. Reed Witherby, and Smith & Duggan, LLP were on brief, for appellants.

Anton P. Giedt, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Michael J. Sullivan, United States Attorney, and Caroline Park, Office of General Counsel, NOAA/NMFS, were on brief, for appellee Evans.

Jay S. Johnson, with whom Ball Janik, LLP was on brief, for appellees General Category Tuna Association et al.

Before SELYA, Circuit Judge, COFFIN, Senior Circuit Judge, and LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

SELYA, Circuit Judge.

This appeal requires us to determine whether Congress intended to use an annual appropriations bill as a vehicle for enacting permanent law to abolish the use of "spotter planes" by tuna fishermen. The district court held that it did and entered judgment accordingly. Atl. Fish Spotters Ass'n v. Evans, 206 F.Supp.2d 81 (D.Mass.2002). Because the pertinent statutory language does not express Congress's intent to enact permanent law with sufficient clarity to overcome the presumption that a provision in an appropriations bill applies only to the fiscal year for which it is enacted, we reverse.

I. BACKGROUND

Inasmuch as the material facts are not in dispute, we present here only those details that are necessary to frame the issue on appeal. We refer persons who desire the full flavor of the litigation's factual and procedural history to the district court's thorough opinion. See id. at 84-86 & n. 2.

We start our sketch by acknowledging that the love of money is the root of the parties' shared interest in how to harvest Atlantic bluefin tuna. A single bluefin can sell for more than $50,000. Those who oppose the use of airborne spotters contend that their deployment gives unfair advantage, and, moreover, shortens the bluefin season because boats using this technique quickly exhaust the allowed harvest.

Against this backdrop, we identify the protagonists. Plaintiff-appellant Atlantic Fish Spotters Association (AFSA) is a trade association. Its membership is comprised of pilots who are capable of locating schools of fish from the air and guiding fishermen toward them. The pilots offer their services to surface vessel fishermen, many of whom consider this methodology highly efficient. The individual plaintiffs-appellants, Jonathan E. Mayhew, Robert H. Sampson, William C. Chaprales, and Ralph E. Pratt, earn their livelihoods either as spotter pilots or as fishermen who wish to use spotter services in endeavoring to catch bluefin tuna. Defendant-appellee Donald L. Evans is the incumbent Secretary of Commerce (the Secretary). He is responsible for administering programs that fall under the aegis of the United States Department of Commerce. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is an agency within the Department of Commerce, and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is a part of the NOAA. The other appellees, who intervened as defendants below, are the General Category Tuna Association and the Northshore Community Tuna Association (the Intervenors). These groups represent the interests of those who employ traditional methods of fishing for bluefin tuna, unassisted by airborne spotters.

The centerpiece of this litigation is a federal permitting scheme, within the purview of the Department of Commerce, applicable to the harvesting of bluefin tuna. See Atlantic Tunas Convention Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 971-971k (2000); Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 1801-1883 (2000). According to the Secretary, the law in force from and after the 2001 fishing season required the NMFS to issue most bluefin permits¹ with the condition "that the fishing activities ... will not involve the use of an aircraft in any manner." The Secretary traces this ban to a rider attached to an appropriations bill for fiscal year (FY) 2001. Because the Secretary reads the rider as creating permanent law that leaves him no discretion, he has issued permits for both the 2001 and 2002 fishing seasons with the disputed condition attached and intends to follow this praxis for the 2003 season.

On June 7, 2001, the AFSA filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts seeking, inter alia, declaratory and injunctive relief limiting the permit condition to the 2001 fishing season.² The AFSA argued that the appropriations rider only prohibited the use of spotter aircraft in catching bluefin tuna through FY 2001, and that without additional authorization from Congress, the ban was not enforceable after the end of that fiscal year (September 30, 2001).³

After the Intervenors had entered the fray, the parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment. The district court applied common canons of construction to the statutory language and granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants. Atl. Fish, 206 F.Supp.2d at 95. This timely appeal followed.

II. ANALYSIS

Summary judgment is appropriate only if the "pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). When the parties cross-move for summary judgment, the district court must resolve all genuine factual disputes in favor of the party opposing each such motion and draw all reasonable inferences derived from the facts in that party's favor. New Engl. Reg'l Council of Carpenters v. Kinton, 284 F.3d 9, 19 (1st Cir.2002). We afford de novo review to orders granting summary judgment, applying essentially the same decisional framework. Id. Such non-deferential review is particularly appropriate in cases, such as this one, that hinge on matters of statutory interpretation. Plumley v. S. Container, Inc., 303 F.3d 364, 369 (1st Cir.2002).

The question before us concerns the proper interpretation of a rider attached to an appropriations bill. The key provision reads:

None of the funds provided in this or any previous Act, or hereinafter made available to the Department of Commerce shall be available to issue or renew, for any fishing vessel, any general or harpoon category fishing permit for Atlantic bluefin tuna that would allow the vessel —

(1) to use an aircraft to locate, or otherwise assist in fishing for, catching, or possessing, Atlantic bluefin tuna; or

(2) to fish for, catch, or possess[] Atlantic bluefin tuna located by the use of an aircraft.

Act of Dec. 21, 2000, Pub.L. No. 106-553, app. B § 634, 2000 U.S.C.C.A.N. (114 Stat.) 2762, 2762A-114 (Section 634). The district court held that the language of Section 634 created permanent law. Atl. Fish, 206 F.Supp.2d at 92. We test this construct.

Statutory interpretation begins — and sometimes ends — with the relevant statutory text. Plumley, 303 F.3d at 369. When the words of a statute neither create ambiguity nor lead to an entirely unreasonable interpretation, an inquiring court need not consult other aids to statutory construction. United States v. Charles George Trucking Co., 823 F.2d 685, 688 (1st Cir.1987). In discerning Congress's intent from the statute itself, we attribute to words that are not specially defined in the text their ordinary usage, albeit with the commonsense understanding that meaning can only be ascribed to language when it is taken in context. Riva v. Commonwealth of Mass., 61 F.3d 1003, 1007 (1st Cir.1995).

This interpretive modality is particularly apt when the meaning of an annual appropriations bill hangs in the balance. A provision in an annual appropriations bill presumptively applies only during the fiscal year to which the bill pertains. The presumption may be rebutted, however, if the appropriations bill "expressly provides that it is available after the fiscal year covered by the law in which it appears." 31 U.S.C. § 1301(c)(2) (2000).

These principles are deeply rooted in our jurisprudence. Their origins can be traced to the opinion in Minis v. United States, 40 U.S. (15 Pet.) 423, 10 L.Ed. 791 (1841), in which the Supreme Court wrote that "[i]t would be ... unusual, to find engrafted upon ... temporary appropriations, any provision ... to have ... permanent application to all future appropriations. Nor ought such an intention on the part of the legislature to be presumed." Id. at 445. In the more than 160 years since Minis was decided, the Court has reiterated, time and time again, that appropriations bills have no more effect on existing law than that which is manifest in the language of any particular provision. See, e.g., United States v. Will, 449 U.S. 200, 222, 101 S.Ct. 471, 66 L.Ed.2d 392 (1980); TVA v. Hill, 437 U.S. 153, 190, 98 S.Ct. 2279, 57 L.Ed.2d 117 (1978). The Court has made equally clear that if an appropriations bill changes existing law, any such change applies only to the fiscal year for which the bill was passed unless Congress clearly expresses a contrary intent. See United States v. Vulte, 233 U.S. 509, 514-15, 49 Ct.Cl. 687, 34 S.Ct. 664, 58 L.Ed. 1071 (1914); United States v. Langston, 118 U.S. 389, 394, 21 Ct.Cl. 506, 6 S.Ct. 1185, 30 L.Ed. 164 (1886). Notwithstanding the growing complexity of the appropriations process, see 1 United States General Accounting Office, Principles of Federal Appropriations Law 1-8 to 1-11 (2d ed. 1991) (GAO Principles), available at www.gao.gov, the courts of appeals have continued to abide by these precepts. E.g., Auburn Hous. Auth. v. Martinez, 277 F.3d 138, 146 (2d Cir.2002); Bldg. & Constr. Trades Dep't, AFL-CIO v. Martin, 961 F.2d 269, 273-74 (D.C.Cir.1992). The rule, then, is that Congress may create permanent,...