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Opinion of the Court
nouncements of the sort at issue here. This analysis is confirmed by Citizens to Preserve Overton Park, Inc. v. Volpe, 401 U. S. 402, which stands for the proposition that decisions to expend otherwise unrestricted funds are not, without more, subject to § 553's notice-and-comment requirements. Finally, the Court of Appeals erred in holding that Morton v. Ruiz, supra, required the Service to abide by § 553's notice-and-comment requirements. Those requirements were not at issue in Ruiz. Pp. 195-199.
953 F. 2d 1225, reversed and remanded.
Souter, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.
Edwin S. Kneedler argued the cause for petitioners. With him on the briefs were Solicitor General Starr, Acting Assistant Attorney General O'Meara, James A. Feldman, Anne S. Almy, John A. Bryson, and Andrew C. Mergen.
Joel R. Jasperse argued the cause and filed a brief for respondents.*
Justice Souter delivered the opinion of the Court.
For several years in the late 1970's and early 1980's, the Indian Health Service provided diagnostic and treatment services, referred to collectively as the Indian Children's Program (Program), to handicapped Indian children in the Southwest. In 1985, the Service decided to reallocate the Program's resources to a nationwide effort to assist such children. We hold that the Service's decision to discontinue the Program was "committed to agency discretion by law" and therefore not subject to judicial review under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U. S. C. § 701(a)(2), and that the Service's exercise of that discretion was not subject to the notice-and-comment rulemaking requirements imposed by § 553.
*Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for Bristol Bay Area Health Corp. et al. by Charles A. Hobbs; for the National Congress of American Indians et al. by Steven C. Moore; and for the Native American Protection & Advocacy Project et al. by Thomas W. Christie.
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