Cite as: 524 U. S. 266 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
Occupational Safety and Health Review Comm'rs, 643 F. 2d 230, 233 (CA5 1981) (same).
Finally, we recognize that the Ninth Circuit expressed concern that a rule of law permitting appeals in these circumstances would impose additional, and unnecessary, burdens upon federal appeals courts. The Solicitor General, while noting that the federal courts reviewed nearly 10,000 Social Security Administration decisions in 1996, says that the "[p]ractical [c]onsequences" of permitting appeals "[a]re limited." Brief for Respondent 26; Reply Brief for Respondent 17, n. 13. Except for unusual cases, he believes, a claimant obtaining a remand will prefer to return to the agency rather than to appeal immediately seeking outright agency reversal—because appeal means further delay, because the chance of obtaining reversal should be small, and because the appeal (if it provokes a Government cross-appeal) risks losing all. Brief for Respondent 26-29.
Regardless, as we noted in Finkelstein, congressional statutes governing appealability normally proceed by defining "classes" of cases where appeals will (or will not) lie. 496 U. S., at 628. The statutes at issue here do not give courts the power to redefine, or to subdivide, those classes, according to whether or not they believe, in a particular case, further agency proceedings might obviate the need for an immediate appeal. Thus, if the Solicitor General proves wrong in his prediction, the remedy must be legislative in nature.
For these reasons, the judgment of the Ninth Circuit is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
273
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8Last modified: October 4, 2007