CL811 Administrative Law and Practice
Module 14 Assignment
NOTE: All facts in this fact pattern are hypothetical. The agency and the statutes and regulations cited in the fact pattern are real. The facts of this assignment build off of the facts in the Module 11 Assignment. You can refer to those facts when answering this question if you would like.
Fact Pattern During the administrative hearing process noted in the assignment in Module 11, the CPSC filed a Motion for a Summary Disposition and Order along with a supporting memorandum pursuant to 16 CFR § 1025.25. The motion and memorandum argued that the consumer complaints received by the CPSC and the information CPSC agents obtained during their investigation, including the interviews with Kids Toys employees and the documents and sample products obtained from the Kids Toys facility, show that the Gamamahi is a substantial product hazard under the law resulting in a substantial risk of injury to the public. Kids Toys provided a written response arguing that the Gamamahi is not a substantial product hazard as defined by the CPSA. The response included some studies and other information that Kids Toys relied upon in determining that the Gamamahi was a safe product. Kids Toys also requested a hearing on the motion. The presiding officer denied the request for a hearing and granted the CPSC’s motion for summary disposition. In doing so, the presiding officer ordered Kids Toys to send out a public notice that the toy is a substantial hazard, to stop manufacturing the Gamamahi until the toy is changed to make it safe, and to offer replacements or refunds to customers.
Pursuant to 16 CFR § 1025.25(d) and § 1025.53, Kids Toys appealed the presiding officer’s granting of the summary decision to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. On appeal, the CPSC adopted the presiding officer’s decision, saying simply that it believed the presiding officer correctly determined the facts as presented in the administrative record and correctly applied the law to the facts. As a result, the CPSC found that a summary decision was appropriate under 16 CFR § 1025.25(c).
Kids Toys wants to appeal the decision to federal court. It also wants to argue on appeal that the CPSC regulations that permit the agency to interview employees when performing inspections, and to issue summary decisions without a full evidentiary hearing, are invalid because the relevant statutes do not authorize them. However, Kids Toys failed to raise these issues in the CPSC administrative hearing proceedings because it focused on responding to the request for summary disposition.
Answer the following questions:
1. What requirements must Kids Toys meet in order to appeal the CPSC decision to a federal court? Be sure to include an explanation of all of the judicial review requirements and the legal standards that Kids Toys must meet in order to appeal to federal court based upon the relevant statutes and regulations and the information in the course materials.
2. Can Kids Toys raise the issue of the agency regulations being invalid on appeal to a federal court if Kids Toys did not raise the issue during the administrative hearing process? Explain why or why not, using the relevant legal standards.
NOTE TO STUDENTS:
The length and the format that you use for your answer is up to you. What is important is that the answer is clear and easy to read, addresses all of the issues, explains all of the relevant legal standards, applies all of the relevant facts to those legal standards, and provides logical conclusions that are supported by the analysis and answer the questions.
Citations
You may need to access the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA) and the relevant Consumer Product Safety Commission regulations to answer these questions. You will need to provide some form of citation to the cases, statutes, and regulations that you reference in the memo. You will not be assessed on whether you use the correct citation format, but the citations you provide must be adequate to allow the professor to understand what specific resource you are referencing and to access the resource to verify that the memo explained it correctly, etc.
Remember, it is very important that you cite to your sources, and a failure to do so can be plagiarism and an Honor Code violation. This is particularly true if you copy and paste information in your answer from any source. Be sure to put any copied information in quotation format and remember that the work product you turn in must be your own work. You should not just copy and paste information from websites and submit that as your own work.
Grading and Points
This Assignment is due in Module 14. A total of 225 points are available for the Assignment based on the following rubric:
Points Criteria 0–111 Answer does not show a sufficient attempt to follow directions or answer questions posed in the Assignment. 112–134 Answer is not very clear or understandable but addresses one or more of the questions with a good faith effort to analyze the issues. Work is inadequate and needs major revisions.
135–156 Answer is fairly clear and understandable and addresses some parts of the questions in the Assignment with answers that ● accurately explain some of the relevant legal standards; ● apply some of the relevant facts to the legal standards; ● state a logical conclusion that is based on the analysis; ● may need a fair amount of revisions; and ● make a good faith effort to provide appropriate citations when using outside sources of information. 157–179 Answer is clear and understandable and addresses the majority of the questions in the Assignment with very good answers that ● accurately explain almost all of the relevant legal standards; ● apply almost all of the relevant facts to the legal standards; ● state a logical conclusion that is based on the analysis; ● need only minor revisions; and ● provide appropriate citations when using outside sources of information. 180–225 Answer is clear and understandable and addresses all, or almost all, parts of the questions in the Assignment with exemplary answers that ● accurately explain all of the relevant legal standards; ● apply all of the relevant facts to the legal standards; ● state a logical conclusion that is based on the analysis; ● need few or no revisions; and ● provide appropriate citations when using outside sources of information.