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Opinion of the Court
erned by the APA. Nothing in § 10(c)'s legislative history supports a contrary reading. Pp. 143-154. 957 F. 2d 145, reversed and remanded.
Blackmun, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court with respect to Parts I, II, and IV, and the opinion of the Court with respect to Part III, in which White, Stevens, O'Connor, Kennedy, and Souter, JJ., joined.
Steven D. Gordon argued the cause for petitioners. With him on the briefs was Michael H. Ditton.
James A. Feldman argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief were Acting Solicitor General Bryson, Assistant Attorney General Gerson, Deputy Solicitor General Mahoney, and Anthony J. Steinmeyer.
Justice Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court.* This case presents the question whether federal courts have the authority to require that a plaintiff exhaust available administrative remedies before seeking judicial review under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U. S. C. § 701 et seq., where neither the statute nor agency rules specifically mandate exhaustion as a prerequisite to judicial review. At issue is the relationship between the judicially created doctrine of exhaustion of administrative remedies and the statutory requirements of § 10(c) of the APA.1
*The Chief Justice, Justice Scalia, and Justice Thomas join all but Part III of this opinion.
1 Section 10(c), 80 Stat. 392-393, 5 U. S. C. § 704, provides: "Agency action made reviewable by statute and final agency action for which there is no other adequate remedy in a court are subject to judicial review. A preliminary, procedural, or intermediate agency action or ruling not directly reviewable is subject to review on the review of the final agency action. Except as otherwise expressly required by statute, agency action otherwise final is final for the purposes of this section whether or not there has been presented or determined an application for a declaratory order, for any form of reconsideration, or, unless the agency otherwise requires by rule and provides that the action meanwhile is inoperative, for an appeal to superior agency authority."
We note that the statute as codified in the United States Code refers to "any form of reconsiderations," with the last word being in the plu-
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