Cite as: 512 U. S. 267 (1994)
Souter, J., dissenting
incapable of scientific resolution are to be resolved in favor of the workman" under LHWCA); Southern S. S. Co. v. Norton, 101 F. 2d 825, 827 (CA3 1939) ("doubts should be resolved in [claimant's] favor" under LHWCA); Southern Pac. Co. v. Sheppeard, 112 F. 2d 147, 148 (CA5 1940) ("[W]here there is doubt it should be resolved in favor of the injured employee or his family" under LHWCA).
III
Because § 7(c) is silent on the burden of persuasion, the job of placing it is left to the bounded discretion of the agencies, subject to judicial review, when interpreting their organic statutes, by customary reference to statutory text, congressional intent, experience, policy, and relevant evidentiary probabilities. See 3 Davis, Administrative Law § 16.9, at 257-258.6 This is only to be expected, since the issue of who bears the risk of nonpersuasion raises a traditional "question of policy and fairness based on experience in . . . different situations." Keyes v. School Dist. No. 1, Denver, 413 U. S. 189, 209 (1973) (quoting 9 J. Wigmore, Evidence § 2486, p. 275 (3d ed. 1940)); accord, 2 J. Strong, McCormick on Evidence § 337, p. 427 (4th ed. 1992), not a matter readily lumped in with the formalities of procedure. While the APA was meant to provide for uniform procedures in administrative adjudications, it is unremarkable that it stopped short of making a substantive policy choice that in every formal hearing the burden of persuasion must rest on one party or the other.
6 See, e. g., NLRB v. Transportation Management Corp., 462 U. S. 393, 401-403 (1983); NLRB v. Curtin Matheson Scientific, Inc., 494 U. S. 775, 786-796 (1990); Bowen v. Yuckert, 482 U. S. 137, 146-147, n. 5 (1987); Garrett v. Moore-McCormack Co., 317 U. S. 239, 246-249 (1942); Concrete Pipe & Products of Cal., Inc. v. Construction Laborers Pension Trust for Southern Cal., 508 U. S. 602, 621-631 (1993); 38 CFR § 3.102 (1993) (doubts in veteran's benefits adjudications resolved in favor of claimant); 38 U. S. C. § 5107 (1988 ed., Supp. IV) (same).
295
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