Geeta Chhetri, et al.v.USA
Geeta and Pratik Chhetri challenged federal transportation regulators’ decision to grant a motor carrier a temporary extension related to a safety rating. The district court dismissed the action, concluding that the discretionary-function exception barred the claims and that the Hobbs Act placed review of the agency’s regulatory decision in the courts of appeals. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed. It held that the agency’s decision involved judgment and choice grounded in policy considerations, satisfying the discretionary-function analysis. It also agreed that the district court lacked jurisdiction to review the validity of the regulation under the Hobbs Act’s channeling provision. The court rejected the Chhetris’ arguments that the regulation and the extension decision could be attacked through this district-court action. A concurrence questioned whether the court needed to decide every part of the regulatory-extension analysis given the jurisdictional and immunity grounds supporting the judgment. The district court’s judgment remained in place.
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