Sponsors (4)
The bill clarifies and streamlines the statutory wording and numbering for judicial review, improving clarity for courts and litigants, but risks creating uncertainty about judicial authority and prompting litigation that could impose transitional legal costs.
Federal courts, judges, and litigants will have a clearer statutory structure and streamlined wording for 5 U.S.C. § 706, reducing confusion, improving consistency of citations, and making judicial opinions and administrative-review references easier to follow.
Taxpayers, state governments, and litigants could face reduced explicit judicial authority to interpret statutes and the Constitution if the bill narrows the listed judicial functions, creating uncertainty for litigants about the scope of review.
Taxpayers, state governments, and litigants may incur transitional costs and increased legal fees because changes to statutory text governing review standards could prompt litigation over the intended scope of those changes.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Makes organizational and wording edits to 5 U.S.C. § 706, including removing an explicit clause directing courts to decide questions of law and interpret statutes/constitutional provisions.
Introduced February 26, 2025 by Scott Fitzgerald · Last progress February 26, 2025
Makes limited, targeted edits to the federal judicial-review statute (5 U.S.C. § 706) that adjust wording and subsection labels without creating new deadlines, funding, agencies, or programs. One clause directing reviewing courts to “decide all relevant questions of law, interpret constitutional and statutory provisions, and” is removed and the existing text is reorganized into labeled subsections. The measure is procedural in form but could affect how courts read and apply the statute in administrative-law cases because it deletes an explicit phrase about the courts’ role in deciding legal and constitutional questions; courts and litigants would rely on existing doctrine and future case law to interpret the practical effect of the edits.