Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe, 401 U.S. 402 (1971)

What is Arbitrary and Capricious Review? 

APA Section 706(2)(A) provides that courts can hold unlawful and set aside agency actions, findings, and conclusions that are “arbitrary and capricious. ” 

The arbitrary and capricious standard of review is most commonly used to assess the factual basis of agency informal, notice-and-comment, rulemaking, but it applies to all agency actions according to the APA. 

Under the “arbitrary and capricious” standard of review, courts look to see whether agencies have taken a “hard look” at the underlying questions of policy and fact upon which their decisions are based. According to the hard look doctrine, agencies have to justify their decisions with adequate reasoning to pass muster under the arbitrary and capricious standard. In practice, the arbitrary and capricious standard and review is very similar, if not identical, to step two of the Chevron test. In the second step of Chevron, courts defer to the agency’s interpretation of the statute so long as the interpretation is reasonable. 

In this class, will explore the more widely applied arbitrary and capricious review standard where courts give agencies significant deference in Citizens to Presence Overton Park v. Volpe and Motor Vehicle Manuf. Assoc. v. State Farm.