No.

20-787
================================================================================================================

In The
Supreme Court of the United States
---------------------------------♦---------------------------------
PRESERVE RESPONSIBLE SHORELINE
MANAGEMENT, ALICE TAWRESEY, ROBERT DAY,
BAINBRIDGE SHORELINE HOMEOWNERS, DICK
HAUGAN, LINDA YOUNG, JOHN ROSLING,
BAINBRIDGE DEFENSE FUND, POINT MONROE
LAGOON HOME OWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC., and
KITSAP COUNTY ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS,
Petitioners,
v.
CITY OF BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, WASHINGTON
STATE DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY,
ENVIRONMENTAL LAND USE HEARING OFFICE,
and GROWTH MANAGEMENT HEARINGS
BOARD CENTRAL PUGET SOUND REGION,
Respondents.
---------------------------------♦---------------------------------
On Petition For A Writ Of Certiorari
To The Washington Court Of Appeals
---------------------------------♦---------------------------------
BRIEF OF AMICI CURIAE
GOLDWATER INSTITUTE AND CATO INSTITUTE
IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONERS
---------------------------------♦---------------------------------
ILYA SHAPIRO TIMOTHY SANDEFUR*
TREVOR BURRUS SCHARF-NORTON CENTER
THOMAS A. BERRY FOR CONSTITUTIONAL
CATO INSTITUTE LITIGATION AT THE
1000 Mass. Ave., NW GOLDWATER INSTITUTE
Washington, DC 20001 500 E. Coronado Rd.
(202) 842-0200 Phoenix, AZ 85004
[email protected] (602) 462-5000
[email protected]
*Counsel of Record
Counsel for Amici Curiae
================================================================================================================
COCKLE LEGAL BRIEFS (800) 225-6964
WWW.COCKLELEGALBRIEFS.COM
 i

QUESTION PRESENTED

Washington law prohibited the Petitioners from

raising their federal constitutional claims before the
state administrative agency. But the law also required
them to go through that state administrative proceed-
ing first, before they could appeal or otherwise bring
their claims in court. State law also barred the Peti-
tioners, upon seeking judicial review of the agency’s
action, from introducing in court the evidence they
needed to substantiate their constitutional claims.
Consequently, the Petitioners were deprived by state
law of any forum in which to bring their constitutional
claims regarding the agency’s actions. Does this violate
Due Process of Law?
 ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Table of Contents .................................................... ii
Table of Authorities ................................................ iii
Identity and Interest of Amici Curiae ................... 1
Introduction and Summary of Reasons for Grant-
ing the Petition .................................................... 2
Reasons for Granting the Petition ......................... 4
I. The overlap of administrative and judicial
jurisdiction often leaves parties with no
opportunity to be heard on constitutional
claims ........................................................... 4
A. In both rulemaking and adjudication,
parties are often denied the right to pre-
sent their cases ...................................... 5
B. Barring parties from introducing evi-
dence to support their claims deprives
them of procedural due process ............ 14
II. Denying a plaintiff any opportunity to in-
troduce facts to show a constitutional vio-
lation is especially problematic in takings
cases ............................................................. 19
Conclusion ............................................................ 24
 iii

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
Page
CASES
Almaklani v. Trump, 444 F.Supp.3d 425 (E.D.N.Y.
2020) ........................................................................11
Arvia v. Madigan, 809 N.E.2d 88 (Ill. 2004) ..............12
Brown v. United States, 396 F.2d 989 (Ct. Cl.
1968) ........................................................................11
Cafe Erotica v. Fla. Dep’t of Transp., 830 So.2d
181 (Fla. App. 2002) ................................................10
Chang v. U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Servs.,
254 F.Supp.3d 160 (D.D.C. 2017) ..............................7
Chang v. U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Servs.,
289 F.Supp.3d 177 (D.D.C. 2018) ..............................7
Cioffoletti v. Planning & Zoning Comm’n, 552
A.2d 796 (Conn. 1989) .............................................10
City of Arlington v. F.C.C., 569 U.S. 290 (2013) ...... 2, 24
City of Dallas v. Stewart, 361 S.W.3d 562 (Tex.
2012) ........................................................................16
City of Monterey v. Del Monte Dunes at Monterey,
Ltd., 526 U.S. 687 (1999) ................................... 21, 22
Consumer Prot. Div. Office of Atty. Gen. v. Con-
sumer Publ’g Co., 501 A.2d 48 (Md. App. 1985) .......11
Diehsner v. Schenectady City Sch. Dist., 543
N.Y.S.2d 576 (N.Y. App. 1989) ...................................9
EchoStar Commc’ns Corp. v. F.C.C., 292 F.3d 749
(D.C. Cir. 2002) ..........................................................9
 iv

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued
Page
Fed. Express Corp. v. Tenn. Pub. Serv. Comm’n,
925 F.2d 962 (6th Cir. 1991) ....................................13
Flytenow, Inc. v. F.A.A., 808 F.3d 882 (D.C. Cir.
2015), cert. denied, 137 S.Ct. 618 (2017) ..................1
Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124 (2007) ...................17
Hobbs, et al. v. City of Pacific Grove, et al., Mon-
terey Cnty. Super. Ct. No. 18CV002411 (Cal.
App. H047705, appeal pending)................................1
In re Edwards Aquifer Auth., 217 S.W.3d 581
(Tex. App. 2006) .......................................................11
Indus. Union Dep’t, AFL-CIO v. Am. Petroleum
Inst., 448 U.S. 607 (1980) ........................................19
Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184 (1964) .......................18
Jarita Mesa Livestock Grazing Ass’n v. U.S. For-
est Serv., 58 F.Supp.3d 1191 (D.N.M. 2014) ...... 7, 8, 10
Jarita Mesa Livestock Grazing Ass’n v. U.S. For-
est Serv., 61 F.Supp.3d 1013 (D.N.M. 2014) ................8
Knick v. Twp. of Scott, 139 S.Ct. 2162 (2019).... 4, 22, 23
Kremer v. Chem. Const. Corp., 456 U.S. 461
(1982) .......................................................................13
Logan v. Zimmerman Brush Co., 455 U.S. 422
(1982) .........................................................................4
Londoner v. City & Cnty. of Denver, 210 U.S. 373
(1908) ............................................................. 4, 13, 18
Mayor & City Council of Baltimore v. Trump,
429 F.Supp.3d 128 (D. Md. 2019) ..............................3
 v

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued
Page
Mich. Ass’n of Home Builders v. Dir. of Dep’t of
Labor & Econ. Growth, 750 N.W.2d 593 (Mich.
2008) ........................................................................11
Mid-City Auto., L.L.C. v. Dep’t of Pub. Safety &
Corr., 267 So.3d 165 (La. App. 2018).......................12
Mohilef v. Janovici, 58 Cal.Rptr.2d 721 (Cal.
App. 1996) ................................................................15
Monte Vista Prof ’l Bldg., Inc. v. City of Monte
Vista, 531 P.2d 400 (Colo. App. 1975) .......................9
Moore v. Dempsey, 261 U.S. 86 (1923) ........................18
New Dynamics Found. v. United States, 70 Fed.Cl.
782 (2006) ..................................................................9
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254
(1964) .......................................................................17
Ocean Harbor House Homeowners Association v.
California Coastal Commission, 77 Cal.Rptr.3d
432 (App. 2008) ..................................................... 6, 9
Patsy v. Board of Regents, 457 U.S. 496 (1982) ..........22
Penn Cent. Transp. Co. v. City of New York, 438
U.S. 104 (1978) ........................................................20
Pennekamp v. Florida, 328 U.S. 331 (1946) ...............18
Perez v. Illinois Concealed Carry Licensing Re-
view Bd., 63 N.E.3d 1046 (Ill. App. 2016), ap-
peal denied, 77 N.E.3d 86 (Ill. 2017) ................ 5, 6, 9
Pickering v. Bd. of Educ. of Twp. High Sch. Dist.
205, 391 U.S. 563 (1968) ..........................................17
Pointer v. United States, 151 U.S. 396 (1894).............21
 vi

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued
Page
Porter v. Califano, 592 F.2d 770 (5th Cir. 1979) .........10
RBG Bush Planes, LLC v. Kirk, 340 P.3d 1056
(Alaska 2015) ..........................................................13
Reynolds Metals Co. v. Indus. Comm’n, 402 P.2d
414 (Ariz. 1965) .........................................................9
Rivas v. Chelsea Hous. Auth., 982 N.E.2d 1147
(Mass. 2013) ............................................................12
Sackett v. EPA, 566 U.S. 120 (2012) ...........................23
San Joaquin Local Agency Formation Comm’n v.
Super. Ct., 76 Cal.Rptr.3d 93 (App. 2008) ...............11
San Remo Hotel, L.P. v. City & Cnty. of San Fran-
cisco, 545 U.S. 323 (2005) ........................................22
State v. Ross, 358 F.Supp.3d 965 (N.D. Cal. 2019) .......... 3
Teston v. Ark. State Bd. of Chiropractic Exam’rs,
206 S.W.3d 796 (Ark. 2005) .....................................12
Town of Tiburon v. Bonander, 103 Cal.Rptr.3d
485 (App. 2009) .........................................................6
United Affiliates Corp. v. United States, 147
Fed.Cl. 412 (2020) ...................................................19
Wilkie v. Robbins, 551 U.S. 537 (2007) .........................8
Williamson County Regional Planning Comm’n
v. Hamilton Bank, 473 U.S. 172 (1985)............. 22, 23
Yee v. City of Escondido, 503 U.S. 519 (1992) .............20
 vii

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued
Page
STATUTES
Fla. Stat. § 120.57(3)(d)(2) ..........................................16

OTHER AUTHORITIES
Adam Gavoor & Steven Platt, Administrative
Records and the Courts, 67 U. Kan. L. Rev. 1
(2018) .......................................................................10
Ann Woolhandler, Judicial Deference to Admin-
istrative Action—A Revisionist History, 43 Ad-
min. L. Rev. 197 (1991) ............................................17
Brent Newton, An Argument for Reviving the
Actual Futility Exception to the Supreme
Court’s Procedural Default Doctrine, 4 J. App.
Prac. & Process 521 (2002) .....................................13
David Currie & Frank Goodman, Judicial Review
of Federal Administrative Action: Quest for the
Optimum Forum, 75 Colum. L. Rev. 1 (1975) ...........12
Evan Criddle, When Delegation Begets Domina-
tion: Due Process of Administrative Lawmak-
ing, 46 Ga. L. Rev. 117 (2011) ........................... 17, 18
Jay Carlisle, Getting a Full Bite of the Apple:
When Should the Doctrine of Issue Preclusion
Make an Administrative or Arbitral Determi-
nation Binding in a Court of Law?, 55 Ford-
ham L. Rev. 63 (1986) ................................................9
Marc James Ayers, A Primer on Alabama Ad-
ministrative Appeals and Judicial Deference,
79 Ala. Law. 406 (2018) ...........................................11
 viii

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued
Page
Martin Redish & William Gohl, The Wandering
Doctrine of Constitutional Fact, 59 Ariz. L.
Rev. 289 (2017) ........................................................18
Russell Engler, And Justice for All—Including
the Unrepresented Poor: Revisiting the Roles of
the Judges, Mediators, and Clerks, 67 Ford-
ham L. Rev. 1987 (1999) ..........................................15
Suzanne Stone, The Preclusive Effect of State
Judgments on Subsequent 1983 Actions, 78
Colum. L. Rev. 610 (1978) .......................................13
Timothy Sandefur & Jonathan Riches, Confront-
ing the Administrative State: State-Based
Solutions to Inject Accountability into an
Unaccountable System (Goldwater Institute,
2019) ..........................................................................1
Travis Brandon, Reforming the Extra-Record
Evidence Rule in Arbitrary and Capricious
Review of Informal Agency Actions: A New
Procedural Approach, 21 Lewis & Clark L.
Rev. 981 (2017) .................................................. 10, 12
Wayne McCormack, Federalism and Section 1983:
Limitations on Judicial Enforcement of Con-
stitutional Claims (Part 2), 60 Va. L. Rev. 250
(1974) .......................................................................24
Wendy Wagner, Administrative Law, Filter Fail-
ure, and Information Capture, 59 Duke L.J.
1321 (2010) ..............................................................15
 1

IDENTITY AND INTEREST OF AMICI CURIAE1

The Goldwater Institute (GI) was established in
1988 as a nonpartisan public policy and research foun-
dation devoted to advancing the principles of limited
government, individual freedom, and constitutional
protections. Through its Scharf-Norton Center for Con-
stitutional Litigation, GI attorneys have represented
parties before administrative agencies, on appeal from
agencies, and in cases involving administrative law’s
intersection with due process. See, e.g., Flytenow, Inc. v.
F.A.A., 808 F.3d 882 (D.C. Cir. 2015), cert. denied, 137
S.Ct. 618 (2017); Hobbs, et al. v. City of Pacific Grove,
et al., Monterey Cnty. Super. Ct. No. 18CV002411 (Cal.
App. H047705, appeal pending). GI scholars have also
published extensively on the subject, see, e.g., Timothy
Sandefur & Jonathan Riches, Confronting the Ad-
ministrative State: State-Based Solutions to Inject
Accountability into an Unaccountable System (Gold-
water Institute, 2019).2
The Cato Institute is a nonpartisan public-policy
research foundation established in 1977 and dedicated
to advancing the principles of individual liberty, free
markets, and limited government. Cato’s Robert A.
Levy Center for Constitutional Studies was estab-
lished in 1989 to help restore the principles of limited
constitutional government that are the foundation of

1
All parties were timely notified and consented to the filing
of this brief. No part of this brief was authored by any party’s
counsel, and no person or entity other than amici funded its prep-
aration or submission.
2
https://goldwaterinstitute.org/administrative-state-blueprint.
 2

liberty. Toward those ends, Cato publishes books and

studies, conducts conferences, and produces the annual
Cato Supreme Court Review.
---------------------------------♦---------------------------------

INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF

REASONS FOR GRANTING THE PETITION
Due process requires that a person have a genuine
opportunity to be heard before being deprived of prop-
erty. Yet thanks to overlapping rules of deference and
procedure, the Petitioners here were denied that op-
portunity. They were required to pursue the adminis-
trative process before going to court; but they were
not allowed to present their argument to the agency;
then, when they were allowed to go to court, they were
barred from introducing evidence necessary to state
their case, because they had not presented it to the
agency.
This Catch-22, resulting from the intersection of
administrative law requirements, is a matter of increas-
ing concern. Agencies enjoy such broad power, and are
subject to so few checks and balances, that they effec-
tively operate as a “headless fourth branch of govern-
ment.” City of Arlington v. F.C.C., 569 U.S. 290, 314
(2013) (Roberts, C.J., dissenting) (citation omitted). Yet
they are exempt from the rules of evidence and pro-
cedure that apply to courts, and are accorded so
much deference that any person who seeks to chal-
lenge their decisions will be barred from introduc-
ing the evidence necessary to state her case before a
 3

neutral decision-maker. This problem is perhaps most

severe at the state level.
Federal and state courts are in disarray as to how
to resolve this problem. Some let litigants introduce
extra-record evidence to show that the agency’s deci-
sion violated the Constitution. Others do not. Still oth-
ers have byzantine, intersecting rules governing when
litigants may do this. Courts have thus characterized
the law governing the question presented here as “un-
settled,” Mayor & City Council of Baltimore v. Trump,
429 F.Supp.3d 128, 138 (D. Md. 2019), and a “morass.”
State v. Ross, 358 F.Supp.3d 965, 1047 (N.D. Cal. 2019).
This Court has long respected the principle that
states may design their laws, and organize their agen-
cies, in whatever manner their citizens consider best
suited to their needs. But that cannot justify falling
below the due process baseline. This Court has made
clear that administrative entities must respect basic
due process principles, in order to ensure that consti-
tutional rights are meaningfully secured against state
intrusion. The Court should take this case to declare
that state law must provide some meaningful oppor-
tunity to assert federal constitutional rights against a
regulatory agency.
---------------------------------♦---------------------------------
 4

REASONS FOR GRANTING THE PETITION

I. The overlap of administrative and judicial
jurisdiction often leaves parties with no
opportunity to be heard on constitutional
claims.
Due process of law gives an aggrieved party the
right “to present his case and have its merits fairly
judged.” Logan v. Zimmerman Brush Co., 455 U.S. 422,
433 (1982). Yet administrative law often deprives peo-
ple of this right by separating the proceedings against
them into administrative and judicial stages, then
denying them the right to assert their claims in the ad-
ministrative stage so that, when they reach the judicial
stage, they are barred from pursuing those claims be-
cause they cannot introduce the requisite evidence.
This creates a “Catch-22,” where the person’s constitu-
tional claim “dies aborning.” Knick v. Twp. of Scott, 139
S.Ct. 2162, 2167 (2019).
Due process means “something more” than a futile
opportunity to complain to an agency that ignores com-
plaints. In Londoner v. City & Cnty. of Denver, 210 U.S.
373, 385–86 (1908), property owners were ostensibly
allowed to object to a tax assessment, but when they
did, the city council simply held another meeting and
adopted a resolution confirming its initial assessment
without considering their objections. Id. at 384–85.
This Court found that this was not a hearing. “[A] hear-
ing, in its very essence, demands that he who is enti-
tled to it shall have the right to support his allegations
by argument, however brief: and, if need be, by proof,
however informal.” Id. at 386.
 5

But these Petitioners were denied that right, due

to a situation that is all too common nationwide: a
party cannot make her constitutional arguments be-
fore the agency, because it lacks jurisdiction to hear
them or because the constitutional violation arises
post-proceeding—but she also cannot ask a court to act
until after completing that administrative proceeding.
So she pursues the administrative step, and when she
later asks a court to intervene, the court is barred from
considering any evidence other than what was intro-
duced before the agency to begin with—which means
the court cannot resolve her constitutional claims.
This trap deprives parties of the right to be heard
both in situations where agencies act in their legisla-
tive capacity and where they act in their judicial ca-
pacity.

A. In both rulemaking and adjudication,

parties are often denied the right to pre-
sent their cases.
Examples of this trap abound in state cases. In Pe-
rez v. Illinois Concealed Carry Licensing Review Bd.,
63 N.E.3d 1046 (Ill. App. 2016), appeal denied, 77
N.E.3d 86 (Ill. 2017), the plaintiff applied for a con-
cealed carry permit. Without holding any evidentiary
hearing, the agency denied his application on the
grounds that he had a criminal history. But he had ac-
tually been found not guilty of that criminal allegation,
and the other “evidence” on which the agency relied
was hearsay. Id. at 1051–53. That did not matter to the
 6

reviewing court, which held that agencies may rely on

hearsay. Id. at 1053. The plaintiff, who appealed pro se,
argued that he should at least have been given a hear-
ing where he could prove that the agency’s conclusions
about him were wrong. But the court said he should
have asked the agency for a hearing, and his failure to
do so constituted waiver. Id. at 1054. Nor could he in-
troduce evidence to the court. Id. at 1050. The conse-
quence was that an unsophisticated layman, convicted
of no crime, was deprived of his Second Amendment
rights through an administrative proceeding that re-
lied on hearsay and gave him no hearing at all.
Or consider Ocean Harbor House Homeowners As-
sociation v. California Coastal Commission, 77 Cal.Rptr.3d
432, 451 (App. 2008). A Northern California beachfront
property owner was forced to pay $5.3 million to the
California Coastal Commission for permission to build
a seawall to prevent its property from being washed
away by waves. The agency based this dollar figure on
two estimates of the value of beach land. But those es-
timates were of beaches in Southern California, 300
miles away, in an entirely different climate. Had they
been introduced into a court proceeding, they would
have been excluded as irrelevant. But because they
were used in an administrative proceeding, they were
not only admitted, but under California law, they were
the only evidence that any later court could consider.
See Town of Tiburon v. Bonander, 103 Cal.Rptr.3d 485,
498 (App. 2009). Consequently, the property owner was
forced to pay an amount that could never have been
substantiated in an actual legal proceeding, thanks
 7

solely to a procedural trap that lets agencies ignore ev-

identiary standards—and impose their will free of ju-
dicial intervention.
The same trap is often found in federal cases. In
Chang v. U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Servs., 289
F.Supp.3d 177 (D.D.C. 2018), the plaintiffs argued
that the federal government denied them visas in vi-
olation of administrative law and that it also violated
the Constitution in doing so. For their arbitrary-and-
capricious claim, they naturally relied on the adminis-
trative record. But to establish their constitutional
claims, they needed other evidence, which the District
Court refused to allow. See Chang v. U.S. Citizenship
& Immigration Servs., 254 F.Supp.3d 160, 161 (D.D.C.
2017). Acknowledging the “disagreement among dis-
trict courts” about whether plaintiffs may introduce
extra-record evidence to support constitutional claims,
it denied the plaintiffs that right, to prevent them from
“ ‘trad[ing] in the APA’s restrictive procedures for the
more evenhanded ones of the Federal Rules of Civil
Procedure.’ ” Id. at 161–62 (citation omitted).
Likewise, in Jarita Mesa Livestock Grazing Ass’n
v. U.S. Forest Serv., 58 F.Supp.3d 1191 (D.N.M. 2014),
the plaintiffs argued that federal regulators denied
them grazing permits in retaliation for their opposition
to the agency’s land-management policies. Id. at 1205–
10. They sought to introduce evidence showing a pattern
of retaliatory conduct. Id. at 1207. The court initially
allowed this on the theory that the plaintiffs “could
have brought only a First Amendment claim in a sep-
arate case and enjoyed robust discovery.” Id. at 1211.
 8

But it later reversed that conclusion and limited the

plaintiffs to the administrative record—a record that,
of course, lacked the evidence necessary to make their
retaliation claim.
The court excluded the evidence based on the prop-
osition that “[t]he relationship between the [agency]
and the Plaintiffs is fundamentally that of tribunal
and litigant, and not that of adversarial parties.” Id.
at 1238. Not only did that beg the question—the en-
tire point the plaintiffs wished to prove was that the
agency was not acting in that manner—but it was also,
frankly, naïve. Cf. Wilkie v. Robbins, 551 U.S. 537, 560–
61 (2007) (agency officials broke into landowner’s house
and engaged in other tortious conduct in an effort to
pressure the owner to sell his land to the government).
Yet despite acknowledging that the plaintiffs’ First
Amendment claim “materialized only after” the ad-
ministrative proceeding, and that “the administrative
appeals process does not afford the Plaintiffs the [evi-
dentiary] tool they need to develop a First Amendment
retaliation claim,” the court denied them the right to
prove their constitutional case. Jarita Mesa Livestock
Grazing Ass’n v. U.S. Forest Serv., 61 F.Supp.3d 1013,
1067–68 (D.N.M. 2014).
Bad as those cases were, this case is worse. State
law denied the Petitioners any opportunity to press
their constitutional claim in the administrative forum
to begin with. As the petition explains (at 9), Petition-
ers cannot prevail upon state courts until completing
the administrative procedure, but cannot present their
constitutional claims there, nor can they present those
 9

claims afterwards without introducing evidence that

state law bars the court from receiving.
As Perez and Ocean Harbor House suggest, this pro-
cedural trap is worsened by the fact that agencies are
exempt from rules of evidence or procedure. Federal
agencies may rely upon “uncorroborated and untested
testimony and hearsay testimony,” and even “unsworn”
and “contradicted” testimony. EchoStar Commc’ns Corp.
v. F.C.C., 292 F.3d 749, 753 (D.C. Cir. 2002). State agen-
cies can do the same. See further Monte Vista Prof ’l
Bldg., Inc. v. City of Monte Vista, 531 P.2d 400, 402
(Colo. App. 1975); Diehsner v. Schenectady City Sch.
Dist., 543 N.Y.S.2d 576, 578 (N.Y. App. 1989); Reynolds
Metals Co. v. Indus. Comm’n, 402 P.2d 414, 416–18
(Ariz. 1965).
But because courts may only consider the evidence
in the administrative record when the party appeals, a
court reviewing an agency action is not only allowed to
rely on contradicted, uncorroborated hearsay—it may
only rely on that contradicted, uncorroborated hearsay.
See New Dynamics Found. v. United States, 70 Fed.Cl.
782, 796–97 (2006) (reliance on administrative record
of “hearsay” permitted because “courts generally have
refused to consider collateral attacks upon the materi-
als in administrative records based upon the post hoc
application of evidence rules.”). See also Jay Carlisle,
Getting a Full Bite of the Apple: When Should the Doc-
trine of Issue Preclusion Make an Administrative or Ar-
bitral Determination Binding in a Court of Law?, 55
Fordham L. Rev. 63, 87 (1986) (“Administrative tribu-
nals are not bound by the rules of evidence. . . . Thus,
 10

at administrative or arbitral hearings, an issue may be

decided on the basis of evidence that would be inad-
missible or insufficient in a court of law.”).
As to whether a court may consider evidence be-
yond the administrative record when evaluating a con-
stitutional claim, federal courts are divided. Compare
Jarita Mesa Livestock Grazing Ass’n, 58 F.Supp.3d at
1237 (court is confined to the administrative record
even where the party’s claim arises under the Consti-
tution), with Porter v. Califano, 592 F.2d 770, 780 (5th
Cir. 1979) (“[C]ourts should make an independent as-
sessment of a citizen’s claim of constitutional right
when reviewing agency decision-making.”); see also
Travis Brandon, Reforming the Extra-Record Evidence
Rule in Arbitrary and Capricious Review of Informal
Agency Actions: A New Procedural Approach, 21 Lewis
& Clark L. Rev. 981, 984 (2017) (detailing the “organic
and ad hoc experimentation in the federal courts” that
has developed “a hodge-podge of conflicting and contra-
dictory standards that vary between and within the
federal circuits”).
States are in total disarray on how to deal with
this problem. See Adam Gavoor & Steven Platt, Ad-
ministrative Records and the Courts, 67 U. Kan. L. Rev.
1, 31 (2018) (noting “the tangled, inconsistent doc-
trines” on this issue). Connecticut requires trial courts
to hear evidence outside the administrative record
when necessary for resolving a constitutional claim.
Cioffoletti v. Planning & Zoning Comm’n, 552 A.2d
796, 799 (Conn. 1989). Florida allows this but does
not appear to require it. Cafe Erotica v. Fla. Dep’t of
 11

Transp., 830 So.2d 181, 183 (Fla. App. 2002). Maryland

bars courts from receiving new evidence but lets them
force agencies to reopen proceedings to receive addi-
tional evidence, Consumer Prot. Div. Office of Atty. Gen.
v. Consumer Publ’g Co., 501 A.2d 48, 57–58 (Md. App.
1985)—a procedure that Michigan, by contrast, prohib-
its. Mich. Ass’n of Home Builders v. Dir. of Dep’t of La-
bor & Econ. Growth, 750 N.W.2d 593, 595 (Mich. 2008).
California forbids the introduction of evidence outside
the administrative record with only “very narrow[ ]”
and “rare” exceptions. San Joaquin Local Agency For-
mation Comm’n v. Super. Ct., 76 Cal.Rptr.3d 93, 100
(App. 2008). Texas has three different standards to use
when reviewing administrative decisions, with differ-
ent levels of evidence allowed. In re Edwards Aquifer
Auth., 217 S.W.3d 581, 586 (Tex. App. 2006). Alabama
has different rules depending on which agency is in-
volved: citizens may introduce new evidence in appeals
from the Agriculture Commissioner but not the Oil and
Gas Board, while in appeals from the state Tax Tribu-
nal, they may introduce new evidence but bear the bur-
den of proving the agency decided wrongly. See Marc
James Ayers, A Primer on Alabama Administrative Ap-
peals and Judicial Deference, 79 Ala. Law. 406, 409–11
(2018).
Federal courts have reached “no consensus” on the
question. Almaklani v. Trump, 444 F.Supp.3d 425, 432
(E.D.N.Y. 2020) (citation omitted); see also Brown v.
United States, 396 F.2d 989, 993–94 (Ct. Cl. 1968) (ex-
amining difference of opinions on this issue).
 12

Barring a court from considering evidence outside

the administrative record is typically justified on the
grounds that this increases efficiency by delegating
fact-finding to a specialized entity. But it also runs the
risk of “reduc[ing] judicial review to a rubber stamp.”
David Currie & Frank Goodman, Judicial Review of
Federal Administrative Action: Quest for the Optimum
Forum, 75 Colum. L. Rev. 1, 59 (1975). And while the
rule might be defensible in circumstances involving
complex factual issues on which the agency is an expert,
it is often used more broadly, with the consequence of
blocking parties from a meaningful opportunity to be
heard on constitutional matters. As Brandon observes,
supra at 1026, the rationale for confining parties to the
administrative record “is unclear where the plaintiffs
have had no opportunity to raise their issues and evi-
dence before the agency in the first instance during the
decision-making process.”
Many states have resorted to forcing litigants to
engage in the futile gesture of presenting an agency
with constitutional arguments that it lacks authority
to address. See, e.g., Teston v. Ark. State Bd. of Chiro-
practic Exam’rs, 206 S.W.3d 796, 804–05 (Ark. 2005).3
This contradicts “the centuries-old ‘fundamental maxim
of jurisprudence,’ deeply rooted in common sense, that

3
Other states do not require this, see, e.g., Mid-City Auto.,
L.L.C. v. Dep’t of Pub. Safety & Corr., 267 So.3d 165, 173 (La. App.
2018), and others say it is not necessary but “advisable.” See, e.g.,
Arvia v. Madigan, 809 N.E.2d 88, 94 (Ill. 2004). Still others say it
is required—but a “public interest” rule allows for ad hoc excep-
tions. Rivas v. Chelsea Hous. Auth., 982 N.E.2d 1147, 1154 (Mass.
2013).
 13

the law does not require ‘useless,’ ‘vain,’ or ‘futile’ acts.”

Brent Newton, An Argument for Reviving the Actual
Futility Exception to the Supreme Court’s Procedural
Default Doctrine, 4 J. App. Prac. & Process 521, 522
(2002). But, in theory, it enables the development of the
factual record for an appellate court to later review the
constitutional issues. RBG Bush Planes, LLC v. Kirk,
340 P.3d 1056, 1061 n.24 (Alaska 2015).
These Petitioners tried to obey that rule, but were
barred from developing the factual record by state law.
See Pet. at 13. That deprived them of a forum in a man-
ner notably similar to the illusory hearing this Court
rebuked in Londoner. Like the plaintiffs in that case,
Petitioners were allowed to state their objections—but
not given any actual “right to support [their] allega-
tions by argument . . . [or] proof.” 210 U.S. at 386.
A solution to these problems would borrow from
the law of preclusion, abstention, or comity. In the law
of preclusion, a party in a subsequent proceeding is
barred from relitigating questions only if she had a full
and fair opportunity to litigate those claims in the first
proceeding. Kremer v. Chem. Const. Corp., 456 U.S. 461,
480–81 (1982). In the law of abstention, a litigant is
confined to state proceedings if those proceedings af-
ford her “an adequate opportunity” to raise her consti-
tutional claims. Fed. Express Corp. v. Tenn. Pub. Serv.
Comm’n, 925 F.2d 962, 969 (6th Cir. 1991). And in the
law of comity, a court will give full faith and credit to a
judgment from another court if that other court had
jurisdiction and accorded due process. Cf. Suzanne
Stone, The Preclusive Effect of State Judgments on
 14

Subsequent 1983 Actions, 78 Colum. L. Rev. 610, 650–

52 (1978). But where, as here, a combination of admin-
istrative procedure and judicial procedures denies the
litigant an adequate opportunity to present constitu-
tional claims, and thus denies her due process, it is
inappropriate to impose the equivalent of preclusion,
abstention, or res judicata.

B. Barring parties from introducing evi-

dence to support their claims deprives
them of procedural due process.
Petitioners here were barred from presenting their
constitutional claims to the agency. But even where
state law allows a party to do so, requiring parties to
present constitutional claims to an agency in the first
instance is problematic.
First, such a requirement front-loads the burden
on the individual, imposing the heaviest burden in just
those situations where she is at the greatest disad-
vantage. She must present her full case before an en-
tity that lacks jurisdiction (and may lack expertise) to
decide that case. She must do so even though the facts
of her case may not yet exist. And she must do so in an
environment where procedural formalities and eviden-
tiary standards are vague or non-existent and where
she stands adverse to the decision-maker. She must do
so even though regulated parties are often not repre-
sented by counsel at all in administrative proceedings.
Finally, she must do so in the midst of an ongoing
process where the tribunal’s decisions may suddenly
 15

implicate constitutional rights that were not at issue

at some earlier stage.
As a result, citizens find administrative agencies
to be traps for the unwary. Many waive rights unknow-
ingly, sometimes as a result of “manipulation and
threats.” Russell Engler, And Justice for All—Includ-
ing the Unrepresented Poor: Revisiting the Roles of
the Judges, Mediators, and Clerks, 67 Fordham L. Rev.
1987, 2024 (1999). Others are pressured to overload
the record to preserve some basis for an appeal before
a neutral decision-maker. See Wendy Wagner, Admin-
istrative Law, Filter Failure, and Information Capture,
59 Duke L.J. 1321, 1321–22 (2010) (“Rather than filter-
ing information, the incentives tilt in the opposite di-
rection and encourage participants to err on the side
of providing too much rather than too little infor-
mation.”).4
Worse, state agencies frequently employ “infor-
mal” procedures, bound by few rules, in which parties
are not represented, and are even discouraged from ob-
taining counsel. Cf. Mohilef v. Janovici, 58 Cal.Rptr.2d
721, 737 (Cal. App. 1996) (letting agencies disregard evi-
dentiary rules because doing otherwise would “inject[ ]
4
The requirement also creates a perverse incentive for agen-
cies, who have no reason to consider input from parties who—due
to the preclusion rule—cannot sue afterwards. “Issue exhaustion,
. . . effectively removes the leverage necessary for negotiating
with agencies at the administrative level. It slams shut the door
of the smoke-filled room on those most vulnerable to being ex-
cluded.” Markoff, The Invisible Barrier: Issue Exhaustion as a
Threat to Pluralism in Administrative Rulemaking, 90 Tex. L.
Rev. 1065, 1085 (2012).
 16

legalisms and attorneys” into the process).5 But pre-

cisely because these individuals are unrepresented lay
citizens, the unjust consequences they experience
rarely end up in published case reports.
The principle that courts should rely only on ad-
ministrative records was adopted out of a sense of def-
erence to the executive when it weighs complex factual
matters as called for by statute. It was never intended
to insulate agencies from independent judicial consid-
eration in justiciable cases. As the Texas Supreme
Court has noted, “while state and lower federal courts
are presumed competent to handle constitutional mat-
ters, administrative agencies, for all the deference they
are typically given, occupy a subordinate status in our
system of government.” City of Dallas v. Stewart, 361
S.W.3d 562, 577 (Tex. 2012). Therefore, while agency
fact-finding is accorded deference with respect to “ini-
tial questions of historical fact,” the legal evaluation,
“which applies those historical facts to the legal stand-
ards,” is “outside the competence of administrative
agencies.” Id. at 578.
In short, a rule confining courts to an administra-
tive record when reviewing agency actions can and

5
In some states (e.g., Florida), a person’s choice of an “infor-
mal” hearing amounts to an admission of all facts and a waiver of
the right to dispute one’s guilt. Fla. Stat. § 120.57(3)(d)(2). As a
result, a citizen who is misled into thinking that an “informal
hearing” means a less expensive hearing, or a lesser risk of pun-
ishment, or a fairer and easier-to-understand proceeding, will
likely end up admitting guilt or otherwise depriving herself of a
right to an appeal.
 17

often does equate to a surrender of the judiciary’s obli-

gation to properly interpret and apply the law. See Ann
Woolhandler, Judicial Deference to Administrative Ac-
tion—A Revisionist History, 43 Admin. L. Rev. 197, 240
(1991) (“[I]f the courts are to have plenary control of
the law, they need plenary control of the facts as well.”).
That is why this Court has often said that its “duty is
not limited to the elaboration of constitutional princi-
ples; we must also in proper cases review the evidence
to make certain that those principles have been consti-
tutionally applied.” New York Times Co. v. Sullivan,
376 U.S. 254, 285 (1964); accord, Pickering v. Bd. of
Educ. of Twp. High Sch. Dist. 205, 391 U.S. 563, 578 n.2
(1968); Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124, 165 (2007).
The procedural trap imposed on Petitioners here de-
nies the courts that opportunity.
Whether an agency acts as an adjudicator or a
rulemaker, it must exercise its powers consistently
with due process—meaning that the legislature must
“constrain[ ] administrative decisionmaking substan-
tively, procedurally, and structurally in such a way
that delegation does not engender domination by
manifestly increasing the government’s capacity for
arbitrariness.” Evan Criddle, When Delegation Begets
Domination: Due Process of Administrative Lawmak-
ing, 46 Ga. L. Rev. 117, 121 (2011). The basic purpose
of the due process requirement is to prevent arbitrary
government actions—yet arbitrariness is made more
likely by standardless delegations of authority, the
elimination of democratic accountability, or rules that
 18

let officials act without reasoned deliberation and jus-

tification. Id. at 158–59.
“The Due Process Clause’s substantive and proce-
dural constraints on . . . delegation would be largely
meaningless in practice if administrative agencies could
sidestep those constraints without legal review or re-
percussions.” Id. at 182. But here, the statutory bar
against introducing evidence to challenge the constitu-
tionality of the agency’s action makes such sidestep-
ping virtually mandatory. This Court has made clear
that due process requires at least some right to present
a case and have it rationally evaluated. See, e.g., Lon-
doner, 210 U.S. at 385–86; Moore v. Dempsey, 261 U.S.
86, 89–90 (1923). And the Court has made clear that
when a citizen’s rights are violated by the decisions of
an agency, that person must have a genuine oppor-
tunity to present facts to a neutral decision-maker to
determine whether the agency acted unconstitution-
ally. See, e.g., Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184, 187–88
(1964); Pennekamp v. Florida, 328 U.S. 331, 335 (1946).
This idea, which some scholars call the “constitutional
fact doctrine,” is based on “the bedrock requirement of
due process: that there be a neutral, independent de-
cision-maker.” Martin Redish & William Gohl, The
Wandering Doctrine of Constitutional Fact, 59 Ariz. L.
Rev. 289, 310 (2017). But here, the statutory bar
against introducing evidence to challenge the consti-
tutionality of the agency’s action deprived Petitioners
of that bedrock right.
 19

II. Denying a plaintiff any opportunity to in-

troduce facts to show a constitutional vio-
lation is especially problematic in takings
cases.
While the administrative law questions presented
here are important across the board, they are espe-
cially relevant in cases involving takings of property.
This is for two reasons: first, in most administrative
proceedings, agencies either promulgate rules that will
be enforced in future cases, or—when acting in a quasi-
adjudicative capacity—determine whether the agency
believes the person should be subjected to enforcement
in a future proceeding.6 But in a takings context, the
rule the agency makes itself causes the taking. The in-
jury is the agency action—which means the party can-
not present all the evidence to support a takings claim
to the agency, since it has not yet taken her property.
In fact, agency determinations that result in tak-
ings are often about entirely separate subjects, and the
process of determination focuses on factors different
from those relevant to a takings determination. Cf.
United Affiliates Corp. v. United States, 147 Fed.Cl. 412,
417–18 (2020) (“[A] constitutional taking and agency
action that is improper under the APA are ‘two sepa-
rate wrongs’ and require courts to use different factors
to evaluate the character of the Government’s con-
duct.”). A property owner who seeks a zoning variance

6
Although deemed “quasi-adjudicative,” such an action (in
theory) still remains within the realm of the executive branch. See
Indus. Union Dep’t, AFL-CIO v. Am. Petroleum Inst., 448 U.S.
607, 675 (1980) (Rehnquist, J., concurring).
 20

or a development permit must typically satisfy certain

statutory standards—but those standards are not the
same as the factors a property owner must prove to es-
tablish a regulatory taking. To force the owner to prove
both—not only that she is entitled to a permit under
some statute, but also that denying the permit would
amount to a taking under the ad hoc, multifactor bal-
ancing test of Penn Cent. Transp. Co. v. City of New
York, 438 U.S. 104 (1978)—is to demand the impossi-
ble.
This is particularly true given this Court’s empha-
sis on the proposition that regulatory takings decisions
depend on “complex factual assessments.” Yee v. City of
Escondido, 503 U.S. 519, 523 (1992). Under existing
precedent, whether a restriction on property use con-
stitutes a taking often depends on testimony from ex-
pert appraisers, financial analysts, real estate agents,
and so forth. It is proper for a factfinder to receive this
information and weigh the credibility of testimony.
This is the second reason the question of letting parties
introduce evidence in court is so important in the tak-
ings context.
Whatever the propriety of delegating fact-finding
to an agency, the Petitioners here were given no oppor-
tunity to even attempt the required showing. It is ar-
bitrary and irrational to require someone to prove
something and deny her the means of proving it. “The
 21

law does not require impossibilities.” Pointer v. United

States, 151 U.S. 396, 413 (1894).7
It was with similar considerations in mind that
this Court held in City of Monterey v. Del Monte Dunes
at Monterey, Ltd., 526 U.S. 687 (1999), that it was ap-
propriate for a property owner to present a takings
claim to a jury, in part because the owner “was denied
not only its property but also just compensation or even
an adequate forum for seeking it.” Id. at 715 (emphasis
added).
Denied any forum in which to seek compensation,
the owner brought a civil rights claim, and argued to
the jury that the city irrationally deprived the owner
of the right to use the property. Id. at 699. The jury
agreed and found that the City had taken the property.

7
The court below brushed away the Petitioners’ argument
that they needed to develop a factual record on the grounds that
their constitutional argument is a facial challenge, and “facial
constitutional challenges can be decided without reference to ad-
ditional facts.” Pet. App. A-11–12. But this is not true. Facial chal-
lenges are not fact-free challenges. Rather, the difference between
facial and as-applied is simply that a facial challenge asserts that
the law in question is always unconstitutional, whereas an as-
applied challenge holds that something specific about this case
renders an otherwise constitutional law unconstitutional. While
it is more common for facts to be disputed in as-applied cases, and
while the factual issues in facial challenges are usually resolved
in the standing inquiry, it is never true that facts do not matter.
For example, a law that prohibited people of one race to own land
would be facially unconstitutional—but the fact that the plaintiff
is a member of that race and desires to own land would be essen-
tial prerequisites to a judgment. These considerations would be
evaluated at the standing stage, but they would still be factual
questions subject to discovery.
 22

Id. at 701. This Court found that it was proper to

submit this question to the jury, because “the issue
whether a landowner has been deprived of all econom-
ically viable use of his property is a predominantly fac-
tual question.” Id. at 720. In short, Del Monte Dunes
recognized that where the state provides no process for
the property owner to defend its rights, the owner may
ask a federal court to intervene—and may present the
relevant facts to a neutral factfinder.
As Del Monte Dunes suggests, the promise of fed-
eral protection against state violations of property
rights will be drastically undermined if this Court al-
lows the procedural trap established here to remain
undisturbed. When citizens must submit to an admin-
istrative proceeding before seeking redress in court, it
becomes all too simple for the state to fashion that pro-
ceeding in ways that preclude later federal enforce-
ment of constitutional rights, by exploiting preclusion,
abstention, and similar requirements. That is exactly
why this Court held in Patsy v. Board of Regents, 457
U.S. 496 (1982), that exhaustion of administrative rem-
edies is not a prerequisite to bringing a civil rights
claim—a principle frequently ignored with respect to
property rights. See San Remo Hotel, L.P. v. City & Cnty.
of San Francisco, 545 U.S. 323, 349 (2005) (Rehnquist,
C.J., concurring) (noting this inconsistency).
This Court has recently taken steps to protect prop-
erty owners against similar administrative law traps.
Knick, for instance, overruled Williamson County Re-
gional Planning Comm’n v. Hamilton Bank, 473 U.S.
172 (1985), which required property owners to seek
 23

compensation in state court before pursuing federal

takings claims in federal court. The “unanticipated
consequences” of the Williamson County requirement
were that if a state court ruled against the property
owner, preclusion barred the owner from seeking fed-
eral court redress—and the owner could not even reserve
her federal claims for federal adjudication without be-
ing subject to preclusion. Knick, 139 S.Ct. at 2169. In
other words, Williamson County preclusion worked as
a form of waiver, and “ ‘hand[ed] authority over federal
takings claims to state courts.’ ” Id. at 2169–70 (cita-
tions omitted).
Similarly, in Sackett v. EPA, 566 U.S. 120 (2012),
this Court rejected the notion that agencies could exert
jurisdiction over citizens without giving them a mean-
ingful opportunity to challenge that assertion before a
neutral decision-maker. The agency was empowered to
cite property owners for violation of the Clean Water
Act, and fine them $75,000 per day, but also to deny
them a day in court until the agency itself chose to in-
itiate an enforcement proceeding—a process Justice
Alito called an “unthinkable” violation of due process.
Id. at 132 (Alito, J., concurring).
The same concerns apply here. The rule barring
the Petitioners from making their constitutional argu-
ment essentially hands authority over federal takings
claims to state administrative agencies—agencies that
are not even required to consider those claims. And it
unthinkably deprives property owners of the right to
present their case.
 24

The requirement that individuals submit claims

to an agency before bringing them to court is often
called “exhaustion,” but it “is really a matter of waiver,”
which is often used “as a deterrent” against people who
would otherwise “systematically bypass[ ]” the admin-
istrative agency. Wayne McCormack, Federalism and
Section 1983: Limitations on Judicial Enforcement of
Constitutional Claims (Part 2), 60 Va. L. Rev. 250, 294–
95 (1974). Even if such an objective were legitimate
with respect to state constitutional rights, it “is wholly
inapplicable when the gravamen of the federal claim is
the abridgement of [federal] constitutional rights. . . .
The need to prevent administrative bodies of the states
from acting in derogation of federally guaranteed
rights should be sufficient to defeat application of the
waiver doctrine.” Id. Just so here: a state’s adjudicative
procedural rules must not be allowed to deprive Peti-
tioners of their due process right to bring a federal tak-
ings claim against an agency that takes their property.
---------------------------------♦---------------------------------

CONCLUSION
What Chief Justice Roberts said of federal agen-
cies in his City of Arlington dissent, 569 U.S. at 312–
15, is even truer of state agencies: they are practically
independent, blend the executive, judicial, and legisla-
tive powers, and are often the actual legislating entity.
Where insulated from judicial review, they are effec-
tively free to confiscate property without paying for it,
by the stroke of a pen. It is improper to deprive citizens
 25

of the most basic element of due process: the right to

present evidence to defend their constitutional rights.
The petition should be granted.
Respectfully submitted,
ILYA SHAPIRO TIMOTHY SANDEFUR*
TREVOR BURRUS SCHARF-NORTON CENTER
THOMAS A. BERRY FOR CONSTITUTIONAL
CATO INSTITUTE LITIGATION AT THE
1000 Mass. Ave., NW GOLDWATER INSTITUTE
Washington, DC 20001 500 E. Coronado Rd.
(202) 842-0200 Phoenix, AZ 85004
[email protected] (602) 462-5000
[email protected]
*Counsel of Record
Counsel for Amici Curiae