Cite as: 527 U. S. 150 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
agreement); NLRB v. Link-Belt Co., 311 U. S. 584, 597 (1941) (expertise); Rochester Telephone Corp. v. United States, 307 U. S. 125, 145-146 (1939) (expertise); ICC v. Louisville & Nashville R. Co., 227 U. S. 88, 98 (1913) (expertise); Stern, 58 Harv. L. Rev., at 81-82 (expertise); 2 Davis & Pierce § 11.2, at 178-181 (intraagency agreement). They are not the reasons courts typically have given for deferring to factfinding made by a lower court judge. See, e. g., Concrete Pipe & Products of Cal., Inc. v. Construction Laborers Pension Trust for Southern Cal., 508 U. S. 602, 623 (1993); Stern, supra, at 82-83 (trial court advantages lie in, e. g., evaluation of witness, not comparative expertise). And we think it also worth noting, in light of the pre-APA movement toward standardization discussed above, supra, at 157, that the CCPA began to refer more frequently to technical complexity and agency expertise as time marched closer to 1946. Out of the 45 cases in our sample decided between 1929 and 1936, 40% (18 of 45) specifically referred to technical complexity. That percentage increased to 57% (25 of 44) for the years 1937 to 1946.
Given the CCPA's explanations, the review standard's origins, and the nondeterminative nature of the phrases, we cannot agree with the Federal Circuit that in 1946, when Congress enacted the APA, the CCPA "recognized" the use of a stricter court/court, rather than a less strict court/ agency, review standard for PTO decisions. Hence the Federal Circuit's review of PTO findings of fact cannot amount to an "additional requiremen[t] . . . recognized by law." 5 U. S. C. § 559.
III
The Federal Circuit also advanced several policy reasons which in its view militate against use of APA standards of review. First, it says that both bench and bar have now become used to the Circuit's application of a "clearly erroneous" standard that implies somewhat stricter court/court review. It says that change may prove needlessly disrup-
161
Page: Index Previous 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007