Hercules, Inc. v. Environmental Protection Agency
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
598 F.2d 91 (1978)
Under a Clean Water Act deadline, the EPA (defendant) proposed regulations restricting toxic-substance discharges into waterways, having changed its procedural rules to let the rulemaking's presiding officer consult other EPA staff before issuing a final decision. Facing a compressed roughly two-month window to review a technically dense, thousands-of-pages record, the presiding officer consulted other EPA staff before finalizing the rule. Hercules Inc. (plaintiff) challenged the resulting regulations, arguing that consultation violated the APA's prohibition on ex parte communications.
Whether, in the context of a rulemaking, the Administrative Procedure Act's prohibition on ex parte communications prevents a presiding officer from discussing the proceeding with other agency staff.