Cite as: 512 U. S. 267 (1994)
Souter, J., dissenting
this usage has led to a jumble"). Further, at the time of the APA's passage, the American Law Institute, Model Code of Evidence (1942), noted both meanings, see Wigmore § 2485, at 284, comments. Thus, courts and commentators continued to note the two meanings both before and long after the enactment of the APA, and use of "burden of proof" in either of its senses continued to create "the lamentable ambiguity of phrase and confusion of terminology under which our law has so long suffered," id., § 2485.
Although standard usage had not made a choice of meanings by 1946, Congress did make one, and the meaning it chose for the phrase as used in § 7(c) was "burden of production." In extensive Reports on the pending legislation, both the Senate and the House explained the meaning of § 7(c):
"That the proponent of a rule or order has the burden of proof means not only that the party initiating the proceeding has the general burden of coming forward with a prima facie case but that other parties, who are proponents of some different result, also for that purpose have a burden to maintain. Similarly the requirement that no sanction be imposed or rule or order be issued except upon evidence of the kind specified means that the proponents of a denial of relief must sustain such denial by that kind of evidence. . . ." S. Rep. No. 752, 79th Cong., 1st Sess., 22 (1945), reprinted in Legislative History of the Administrative Procedure Act, S. Doc. No. 248, 79th Cong., 2d Sess., 208 (1946) (hereinafter Leg. Hist.); H. R. Rep. No. 1980, 79th Cong., 2d Sess., 36 (1946), Leg. Hist. 270-271.
The House Report added that,
"[i]n other words, this section means that every proponent of a rule or order or the denial thereof has the burden of coming forward with sufficient evidence therefor . . . .
. . . . .
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