44
TERM CARE, INC. Thomas, J., dissenting
Traynor v. Turnage, 485 U. S. 535, 542 (1988); Michigan Academy, 476 U. S., at 670; Johnson v. Robison, 415 U. S. 361, 373-374 (1974); Stark v. Wickard, 321 U. S. 288, 309- 310 (1944).
The rationale for this "presumption," Abbott Laboratories, supra, at 140, is straightforward enough: Our constitutional structure contemplates judicial review as a check on administrative action that is in disregard of legislative mandates or constitutional rights. As Chief Justice Marshall explained:
" 'It would excite some surprise if, in a government of laws and of principle, furnished with a department whose appropriate duty it is to decide questions of right, not only between individuals, but between the government and individuals; a ministerial officer might, at his discretion, issue this powerful process . . . leaving to [the claimant] no remedy, no appeal to the laws of his country, if he should believe the claim to be unjust. But this anomaly does not exist; this imputation cannot be cast on the legislature of the United States.' " United States v. Nourse, 9 Pet. 8, 28-29 (1835) (as quoted in Gutierrez de Martinez, supra, at 424).
See also S. Breyer, R. Stewart, C. Sunstein, & M. Spitzer, Administrative Law and Regulatory Policy 832 (4th ed. 1999) (suggesting that "the presumption of review owes its source to considerations of accountability and legislative supremacy, ideas embodied in article I, and also to rule of law considerations, embodied in the due process clause"); Michigan Academy, supra, at 681-682, n. 12 (noting that interpreting statute to allow judicial review would avoid the serious constitutional issue that would arise if a judicial forum for constitutional claims were denied).11
11 We have observed that Congress "reinforced" the presumption by enacting the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), which "embodies the basic presumption of judicial review to one 'suffering legal wrong because of agency action, or adversely affected or aggrieved by agency action
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