Lincoln v. Vigil, 508 U.S. 182, 9 (1993)

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190

LINCOLN v. VIGIL

Opinion of the Court

under the APA. Although the court concededly could identify no statute or regulation even mentioning the Program, see 953 F. 2d, at 1229, it believed that the repeated references to it in the legislative history of the annual appropriations Acts, supra, at 187, "in combination with the special relationship between the Indian people and the federal government," 953 F. 2d, at 1230, provided a basis for judicial review. The Court of Appeals also affirmed the District Court's ruling that the Service was subject to the APA's notice-and-comment procedures in terminating the Program, reasoning that our decision in Morton v. Ruiz, 415 U. S. 199 (1974), requires as much whenever the Federal Government " 'cuts back congressionally created and funded programs for Indians.' " 953 F. 2d, at 1231 (citation omitted). The Court of Appeals did not consider whether the APA's publication requirements applied to the Service's decision to terminate the Program or whether the District Court's order to reinstate the Program was a proper form of relief, an issue the Service had failed to raise. Id., at 1231-1232. We granted certiorari to address the narrow questions presented by the Court of Appeals's decision. 506 U. S. 813 (1992).

II

First is the question whether it was error for the Court of Appeals to hold the substance of the Service's decision to terminate the Program reviewable under the APA. The APA provides that "[a] person suffering legal wrong because of agency action, or adversely affected or aggrieved by agency action within the meaning of a relevant statute, is entitled to judicial review thereof," 5 U. S. C. § 702, and we have read the APA as embodying a "basic presumption of judicial review," Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner, 387 U. S. 136, 140 (1967). This is "just" a presumption, however, Block v. Community Nutrition Institute, 467 U. S. 340, 349 (1984), and under § 701(a)(2) agency action is not subject to judicial review "to the extent that" such action "is committed

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