Center for Auto Safety, Inc. v. Federal Highway Administration
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
956 F.2d 309 (D.C. Cir. 1992)
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA, defendant), statutorily required to set maximum bridge inspection intervals, initially set a two-year interval but later adopted a 1988 rule letting states exempt some bridges from any maximum interval requirement, citing unspecified later studies; the same rule newly required underwater bridge-support inspections at five-year intervals based on professional engineer recommendations given limited data. The Center for Auto Safety (plaintiff) challenged both provisions as arbitrary and capricious under the APA, and after the FHWA denied a petition for review, the district court upheld the rule; the Center appealed.
Whether a federal agency's rule is arbitrary and capricious when it lacks substantial evidentiary support in the administrative record, and whether an agency may supplement that record with post-hoc studies offered during litigation.