Thomas v. Union Carbide Agricultural Products Co.

FIFRA required companies registering pesticides to submit supporting data to the EPA and provided compensation for the EPA's use of that data, with the compensation amount set by binding arbitration; thirteen large chemical firms (plaintiffs) sued the United States (defendant), arguing the binding-arbitration requirement violated Article III, which vests judicial power in Article III courts. The district court agreed with the chemical firms, and the government appealed.