250
Syllabus
OWCP, 75 F. 3d 929, 934 (CA4), and McCord v. Benefits Review Board, 514 F. 2d 198, 200 (CADC). Where a single overarching agency has two subagencies that wear the hats of, respectively, litigator/enforcer and adjudicator, the "agency" that must be named as a respondent under Rule 15(a) is the overarching agency, which is free to designate its enforcer/litigator as its voice before the courts of appeals. It is not necessary that the overarching agency have absolute veto power over the decisions of its adjudicator, so long as it has substantial control over those decisions. By statute and regulation, the LHWCA adjudicative and enforcement/litigation functions of the Department of Labor are divided between the ALJ's and the Board on the one hand, and the Director on the other, and the Secretary of Labor has named the Director as the Department's designated litigant in the courts of appeals. The Department is thus the "agency" for Rule 15(a) purposes, and the Court concludes that the Director may be named as a respondent in the courts of appeals. Although the Director does not always have the right to appeal as a petitioner to those courts, Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs v. Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., 514 U. S. 122, 135-136, this does not result in a "lopsided" representation scheme whereby the Director can appear only in defense of the Board's decisions. The Director, even as a respondent, is free to argue on behalf of the petitioner, see Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs v. Perini North River Associates, 459 U. S. 297, 301, and to challenge the Board's decision. Pp. 262-270.
65 F. 3d 460, affirmed.
O'Connor, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court with respect to Parts I and II, and the opinion of the Court with respect to Part III, in which Rehnquist, C. J., and Stevens, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer, JJ., joined. Scalia, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, in which Thomas, J., joined, post, p. 270.
Richard P. Salloum argued the cause for petitioners. With him on the briefs were Paul B. Howell, William J. Powers, Jr., and George M. Simmerman, Jr.
Beth S. Brinkmann argued the cause for the federal respondent. On the brief were Acting Solicitor General Dellinger, Deputy Solicitor General Kneedler, J. Davitt McAteer, Allen H. Feldman, and Edward D. Sieger.
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