Madison-Hughes v. Shalala

• Decision Date: 08 April 1996
• Docket Number: No. 94-6626,MADISON-HUGHES,94-6626
• Parties: Vareda; Tennessee Interfaith Coalition for Justice in Health Care, Plaintiffs-Appellants, Amy Cato; Charlotte Collins; Treutland County Clients Council, Appellants, v. Donna E. SHALALA, Secretary, United States Department of Health and Human Services; United States Department of Health and Human Services; Dennis Hayashi, Director, Office of Civil Rights, United States Department of Health and Human Services, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 1121

80 F.3d 1121

Vareda MADISON-HUGHES; Tennessee Interfaith Coalition for

Justice in Health Care, Plaintiffs-Appellants,

Amy Cato; Charlotte Collins; Treutland County Clients

Council, Appellants, v. Donna E. SHALALA, Secretary, United States Department of

Health and Human Services; United States Department of

Health and Human Services; Dennis Hayashi, Director, Office

of Civil Rights, United States Department of Health and

Human Services, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 94-6626.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued Jan. 22, 1996.

Decided April 8, 1996

On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee; John T. Nixon, Chief Judge. No. 93-00048.

Gordon Bonnyman (argued and briefed), Nashville, TN, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.

William L. Deneke, Asst. U.S. Atty. (argued and briefed), Office of the U.S. Attorney, Nashville, TN, Louis Altarescu, Office of the General Counsel, Civil Rights Division, Washington, DC, for Defendants-Appellees.

Kenneth Kimerling, Puerto Rican Legal Defense & Education Fund, New York City, for Amicus Curiae Puerto Rican Legal Defense & Education Fund Inc.

Before CONTIE, NELSON, and BATCHELDER, Circuit Judges.

CONTIE, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs-appellants, and proposed intervenors, Amy Cato, Charlotte Collins, and Treutland County Clients Council, appeal the order of the district court dismissing this action against defendants for failure to comply with alleged mandatory federal regulations under Title VI because the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction. ¹ For the following reasons, we affirm the order of the district court.

I.

On January 19, 1993, the original plaintiffs, Vareda Madison-Hughes and the Tennessee Interfaith Coalition for Justice in Health Care, filed suit against defendants, the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS"), the Secretary of HHS, Donna Shalala, and the Acting Director of HHS's Office of Civil Rights ("OCR").

Plaintiffs alleged that they were discriminated against by health care providers, who were recipients of HHS funds, in violation of Title VI, which prohibits recipients from discriminating on the grounds of race, color, or national origin. ² Plaintiffs challenged the failure of HHS to comply with alleged mandatory federal regulations governing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d, which provide for HHS to collect data and information from recipients of federal assistance sufficient to permit effective enforcement of Title VI. Plaintiffs alleged that because defendants published no measures of the racial integration of health care providers, Title VI cannot be effectively enforced. Plaintiffs also alleged that HHS has not produced routine reports on the ethnic distribution of recipients by health care providers and does not require uniform race or ethnic data collection or reporting from health care providers. Accordingly, plaintiffs sought declaratory and injunctive relief to compel defendants to comply with Title VI and the implementing regulations and collect such data.

On March 22, 1993, defendants moved to dismiss the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. On June 4, 1993, plaintiffs filed a response and in concert with three potential intervenors, filed a "Motion For Leave to File Amended and Supplemental Complaint, and to Intervene." On August 26, 1994, the district court heard oral arguments on the motion to dismiss. On September 21, 1994, the district court granted defendants' motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The district court held that under § 701(a)(2) of the Administrative Procedure Act ("APA"), 5 U.S.C. § 701 et seq., the court was without jurisdiction over the case because there were no meaningful standards in Title VI or the Title VI regulations by which to judge HHS's data collection. Having ruled that it lacked jurisdiction over the case, the court denied the motions to intervene and to supplement the complaint as moot. On October 19, 1994, plaintiffs and the applicants for intervention filed a timely notice of appeal.

II.

A district court's decision to grant a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction is reviewed de novo. Ang v. Procter & Gamble Co., 932 F.2d 540, 544 (6th Cir.1991).

Title VI states that "[n]o person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." 42 U.S.C. § 2000d. It also authorizes federal agencies to issue and to enforce implementing regulations in order to effectuate § 2000d. 42 U.S.C. § 2000d-1. Compliance with any requirement of Title VI can be effected by (1) terminating federal assistance; or (2) by any other means authorized by law. Id.

The Attorney General is responsible for coordinating the compliance and enforcement of Title VI by federal agencies through the implementation of rules and regulations. Executive Order 11764, 41 Federal Register 52669 (December 1, 1976) and Executive Order 12250, 45 Federal Register 72995 (Nov. 2, 1980).

Pursuant to the Congressional and Presidential mandate, the Attorney General issued 28 C.F.R. Part 42, Subpart F. Subpart F serves "to insure that federal agencies which extend financial assistance properly enforce title VI ... and similar provisions in federal grant statutes." 28 C.F.R. § 42.401. The subpart further provides for enforcement of Title VI. HHS then acted to develop Title VI implementing regulations. 45 C.F.R. Part 80. These regulations, which provided for compliance with Title VI, were made applicable "to any program for which Federal financial assistance is authorized to be extended to a recipient under a law administered by [HHS]...." 45 C.F.R. § 80.2. Because HHS is a federal agency which provides financial assistance through the Medicare and Medicaid programs, it must comply with Title VI.

The plaintiffs' suit, claiming HHS has failed to collect specified data mandated by Title VI, must be evaluated under the APA. Section 701 provides for judicial review of agency actions except "to the extent that (1) statutes preclude judicial review; or (2) agency action is committed to agency discretion by law." 5 U.S.C. § 701. If it is determined that either situation exists, then a court must decline to exercise jurisdiction over the matter. Heckler v. Chaney, 470 U.S. 821, 828, 105 S.Ct. 1649, 1654, 84 L.Ed.2d 714 (1985). If the matter is not precluded by review, then the court must analyze whether the agency's action was "arbitrary, capricious, [or] an abuse of discretion." 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(A).

In Chaney, the Supreme Court has provided its most recent detailed analysis and formulation of 5 U.S.C. § 701(a)(2). The Court held that "even where Congress has not affirmatively precluded review, review is not to be had if the statute is drawn so that a court would have no meaningful standard against which to judge the agency's exercise of discretion." 470 U.S. at 830, 105 S.Ct. at 1655 (emphasis added). In the present case, the dispositive issue is whether the statutory scheme of Title VI and its accompanying implementing regulations provide meaningful standards by which to judge the collection of data by HHS, or whether monitoring compliance in the form of data collection is committed to agency discretion by law, precluding review under 5 U.S.C. § 701(a)(2).

III.

Plaintiffs contend that the court has subject matter jurisdiction under the APA, 5 U.S.C. §§ 701-706. Plaintiffs first rely upon section 706(1) as justification for the court's jurisdiction. This section provides for court intervention to "compel agency action unlawfully withheld...." Agency action is "unlawfully withheld" only when "the agency has violated its statutory mandate by failing to act." Environmental Defense Fund, Inc. v. Costle, 657 F.2d 275, 283 (D.C.Cir.1981). Plaintiffs' complaint is premised on the assumption that HHS has violated Title VI by failing to collect the following types of statistical data: routine reports on the ethnic distribution of recipients by health care providers, uniform race or ethnic data collection from health care providers, and measures of the racial integration of health care providers, which would be useful to them in their advocacy and research activities regarding discrimination by health care providers.

We find that the complaint should be dismissed under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, because jurisdiction depends upon the alleged existence of a mandatory legal requirement that HHS routinely collect such data, when, in fact, data collection is left to HHS's discretion, and no such legal requirement exists. First, we find no "statutory mandate" to collect data. Title VI's only substantive provision simply prohibits discrimination on the grounds of race, color, or national origin. 42 U.S.C. § 2000d. The language of the statute, thus, does not provide for mandatory collection of such racial data.

Just as there is no statutory mandate, there is no regulation promulgated under Title VI mandating that HHS collect the type of racial data which plaintiffs specify. Plaintiffs cite only two provisions in arguing that HHS has not fulfilled mandatory requirements by failing to collect this type of racial data. The first is 45 C.F.R. § 80.6. They contend that HHS has failed "to comply with mandatory federal regulations which require them to obtain compliance information from Medicare and Medicaid participating providers, 45 C.F.R. § 80.6."

Nothing in 45 C.F.R. § 80.6 requires HHS to obtain specific statistical data from Medicare and Medicaid providers or any other recipients of HHS funds. Section 80.6(b) discusses recipient reporting requirements. ³ However, the only requirement in § 80.6(b) is that recipients provide compliance reports "at such times, and in such form and containing such...