Community Nutrition Institute v. Young
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
818 F.2d 943 (D.C. Cir. 1987)
The FDA (defendant) set binding numerical "action levels" for contaminants in corn without notice-and-comment rulemaking, exposing producers who exceeded those levels to potential enforcement while allowing producers to seek individual exemptions; the FDA conceded it lacked discretion to prosecute a producer complying with the action levels, but argued the levels were merely non-binding interpretive policy statements exempt from APA rulemaking procedures. The Community Nutrition Institute (plaintiff) sued challenging the rules; the district court granted summary judgment to the FDA, and CNI appealed.
Whether, under administrative law, a federal agency rule that sets enforceable standards and limits prosecutorial discretion is a policy statement exempt from informal-rulemaking procedures.