Darby v. Cisneros
United States Supreme Court
509 U.S. 137 (1993)
After an ALJ imposed an eighteen-month disbarment on Darby (plaintiff) from HUD procurement contracts, and neither party sought further discretionary agency review (which HUD regulations made available but not mandatory), Darby sued in federal court under the APA without pursuing that further review; HUD (defendant) moved to dismiss for failure to exhaust administrative remedies, which the district court denied but the court of appeals reversed.
Whether federal courts have the authority to require that plaintiffs exhaust available administrative remedies before seeking judicial review under the APA, if neither the governing statute nor agency rules specifically require that exhaustion is a prerequisite to judicial review.