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News & Analysis | REG•WATCH Blog | Press Room
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Data Quality Act claim rejected by court
The second court to address whether the Data Quality Act permits judicial review of an agency's decision in DQA petitions has, like the first, ruled that the DQA does not permit judicial review. Unlike the first court decision, which was a rush job that perhaps adequately addressed whether the DQA permits a private right of action but failed miserably to answer thoroughly whether the APA permits review of DQA decisions, the court in this new case carefully reviewed the APA claim.
Notably, the new court decision applies standing doctrine to bar the claim. The court had more than enough grounds to reject the claim when it found that (1) the DQA itself provides neither express nor implied rights of action and (2) the APA does not permit review of agency decisions under the DQA. By applying standing doctrine, the court may have been influenced by DOJ's about-face in footnote 21 of its brief in the case, in which the federal government shifted ground from an absolute position that the DQA never permits judicial reviewability to a position in which it contemplated the possibility that government information could cause litigable harm.
Read OMB Watch's analysis here. Click here to download a copy of the decision.
You can also look at the text of the DQA or read more news and background in the Information & Access team's Data Quality Act pages.
Posted by Robert Shull
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