Preston v. Heckler, s. 83-3732

• Decision Date: 07 June 1984
• Docket Number: Nos. 83-3732,83-3809 and 83-3844,s. 83-3732
• Citation: 734 F.2d 1359
• Parties: 34 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 34,433 Lillian N. PRESTON, for herself and all others similarly situated, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Margaret HECKLER, Secretary of Health and Human Services, et al., Defendants-Appellants. Lillian N. PRESTON, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Margaret M. HECKLER, Secretary of United States Department of Health and Human Services, et al., Defendants-Appellants. Lillian PRESTON, for herself and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Margaret HECKLER, Secretary of Health and Human Services, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1359

734 F.2d 1359 34 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 34,433 Lillian N. PRESTON, for herself and all others similarly
situated, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
Margaret HECKLER, Secretary of Health and Human Services, et
al., Defendants-Appellants.
Lillian N. PRESTON, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
Margaret M. HECKLER, Secretary of United States Department
of Health and Human Services, et al.,
Defendants-Appellants.
Lillian PRESTON, for herself and all others similarly
situated, Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.
Margaret HECKLER, Secretary of Health and Human Services, et
al., Defendants-Appellees. Nos. 83-3732, 83-3809 and 83-3844. United States Court of Appeals,
Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted Nov. 8, 1983.
Decided June 7, 1984.

Page 1362

William B. Schendel, Daniel L. Callahan, Fairbanks, Alaska, for plaintiff-appellee.

Marleigh D. Dover, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., for defendants-appellants.

Appeal from the United States District Court in the District of Alaska (Fairbanks).

Before SNEED, NELSON, and REINHARDT, Circuit Judges.

Page 1363

REINHARDT, Circuit Judge:

The district court held that the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services failed to comply with the Indian Preference Act (section 12 of the Indian Reorganization Act, ch. 576, 48 Stat. 986 (1934)). In so holding, the district court concluded that the Act requires the Secretary to adopt standards for evaluating the qualifications of Indians for employment in the Indian Health Service that are separate and independent from the generally applicable civil service criteria. We agree.

Plaintiff Lillian Preston is an Athabascan Indian who has been employed since 1975 by the Indian Health Service as a medical records technician. The Indian Health Service, a federal agency under the supervision of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, provides health services to Indians. The plaintiff applied for a position as a medical social worker. She was notified that her application was denied because she did not have a masters degree in social work and therefore did not satisfy the civil service requirements for the position.

After exhausting all administrative remedies, the plaintiff brought this class action challenging the criteria used by the Department in selecting employees for the Indian Health Service. She alleged that the Secretary's use of the civil service criteria to evaluate the qualifications of Indians and her failure to promulgate separate, independent standards for Indians violated the Indian Preference Act. She sought declaratory relief to that effect as well as injunctive relief requiring the Secretary to define, without regard to civil service standards, the eligibility criteria for all Indian Health Service positions.

After certifying the class, the district court held that the Secretary failed to comply with the requirements of the Indian Preference Act and granted summary judgment. The district court held that the Secretary's failure to comply with the Act constituted a continuing abuse of discretion in violation of section 10(e) of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. Sec. 706(2)(A) (1982). It remanded the case to the Secretary to establish standards, in compliance with the Indian Preference Act, for evaluating the qualifications of Indians for employment in the Indian Health Service. See Preston v. Schweiker, 555 F.Supp. 886, 892 (D.Alaska 1983).

On appeal, the Secretary argues that (1) the plaintiff did not have standing to bring the claim; (2) the district court erred in interpreting the Indian Preference Act and, even assuming the correctness of the district court's interpretation, in holding that the Secretary did not comply with the requirements of the Act.

STANDING

The Secretary alleges that Preston lacked standing to challenge the Secretary's conduct because she did not suffer the requisite "injury in fact" under article III of the Constitution. The plaintiff disagrees. She contends that the Secretary's failure to adopt separate and independent standards for Indians, as required by the Indian Preference Act, precluded her from being considered for the medical social worker position. That, she says, is enough to support her claim of standing.

Under article III, federal courts do not have jurisdiction over a claim unless there is an "actual case or controversy." The standing doctrine is one component of the case or controversy requirement. See, e.g., Scott v. Rosenberg, 702 F.2d 1263, 1267 (9th Cir.1983), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 1439, 79 L.Ed.2d 760 (1984). The policy concern behind the standing doctrine is that each party have "such a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy as to assure that concrete adverseness which sharpens the presentation of the issues upon which the court so largely depends." Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 204, 82 S.Ct. 691, 703, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1962). ¹ An essential element of the standing

Page 1364

requirement is that "the plaintiff ... show that he personally has suffered some actual or threatened injury as a result of the putatively illegal conduct of the defendant." Gladstone, Realtors v. Village of Bellwood, 441 U.S. 91, 99, 99 S.Ct. 1601, 1607, 60 L.Ed.2d 66 (1979) (citations omitted). ²

The Supreme Court recently restated the test for standing under article III:

at an irreducible minimum, Art. III requires the party who invokes the court's authority to "show that he personally has suffered some actual or threatened injury as a result of the putatively illegal conduct of the defendant," ... and that the injury "fairly can be traced to the challenged action" and "is likely to be redressed by a favorable decision."

Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church & State, Inc., 454 U.S. 464, 472, 102 S.Ct. 752, 758, 70 L.Ed.2d 700 (1982) (citations omitted; footnote omitted); see McMichael v. County of Napa, 709 F.2d 1268, 1269-70 (9th Cir.1983).

The test for standing under a statute may be more rigorous but not more lenient than the article III requirements. "Neither the Administrative Procedure Act, nor any other congressional enactment, can lower the threshold requirements of standing under" article III. Valley Forge, 454 U.S. at 488 n. 24, 102 S.Ct. at 766 n. 24 (citing Gladstone, Realtors v. Village of Bellwood, 441 U.S. 91, 100, 99 S.Ct. 1601, 1608, 60 L.Ed.2d 66 (1979); Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 501, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 2206, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975)). Thus, a plaintiff who meets a valid standing provision of a statute necessarily meets the requirements for standing under article III.

Preston alleges that the Secretary's failure to comply with the law violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The statutory standing requirement for challenging the conduct of a federal agency under the APA is set forth in section 10(a) of that Act, 5 U.S.C. Sec. 702 (1982). ³ In Association of Data Processing Service Organizations, Inc. v. Camp, 397 U.S. 150, 152-53, 90 S.Ct. 827, 829, 25 L.Ed.2d 184 (1970), the Court held that in order to meet the standing requirement of section 10(a) a plaintiff must allege "that the challenged action has caused him injury in fact, economic or otherwise;" in addition, "the interest sought to be protected by the complainant [must] arguably [be] within the zone of interests to be protected or regulated by the statute or constitutional guarantee in question." Subsequently, the Court said that Data Processing includes a requirement that the injury be "redressable by the court." ⁴

Data Processing recognized that article III standing is a prerequisite to standing under the APA and, before considering the question of standing under the APA, determined that the article III requirements of standing were satisfied. Thus the test announced in Data Processing was one that the Court deemed to be in compliance

Page 1365

with the minimum requirements for standing under article III. Moreover, the Data Processing test is entirely consistent with Valley Forge 's recent restatement of those minimum requirements. ⁵ Thus, a plaintiff who meets the Data Processing test in cases arising under the APA satisfies the minimum article III requirements as restated in Valley Forge.

Valley Forge also refers to "prudential principles" that affect the question of standing. Prudential principles are judge-made rules. They are additional criteria to those compelled by article III. Like the other elements we have discussed, they are directed toward ensuring that there is a real controversy over an actual injury. However, prudential principles differ from article III requirements in important respects. Prudential principles do not constitute "limitation[s] on judicial power," Valley Forge, 454 U.S. at 475, 102 S.Ct. at 760; they are only "factors to be balanced," id., and then only in cases in which the courts are free to weigh those additional principles. When Congress has prescribed the elements of standing under a statute, prudential principles are not applicable--except for those that may have been incorporated in the statute. "Congress may, by legislation, expand standing to the full extent permitted by Art. III, thus permitting litigation by one 'who otherwise would be barred by prudential standing rules.' " Gladstone, Realtors v. Village of Bellwood, 441 U.S. 91, 100, 99 S.Ct. 1601, 1608, 60 L.Ed.2d 66 (1979) (quoting Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 501, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 2206, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975)). ⁶

It follows that the real issue before us is whether Preston meets the standing requirements of the APA. In order to do so, she need not demonstrate that she would have been hired if the Secretary had complied with the law. See Bryant v. Yellen, 447 U.S. 352, 367-68, 100 S.Ct. 2232, 2240-41, 65 L.Ed.2d 184 (1980) (holding under article III); Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265, 280-81 n. 14, 98 S.Ct. 2733, 2743 n. 14, 57 L.Ed.2d 750 (1978) (plurality opinion) (same); Village of Arlington...