Nicholas J. Bonacci v. Transportation Security Administration

This case presents an ideal vehicle for this Court to examine judicial deference models such as Chevron, and the ability to reconcile them with Sec. 706 of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). Unlike Sec. 706 of the APA, which is law, judicial deference models are products of the judiciary, and the subject of scorn in the administrative law realm, and recently the Congress. Moreover, a lack of any uniform framework to trigger Chevron, or other deference models has created a judicial no man's land for litigants such as Bonacci. Unlike currently pending cases, which only glance the growing tension, Bonacci directly confronts the lack of due process accorded aggrieved parties in administrative law matters, thereby sparing this Court yet again fitful examination. Bonacci respectfully presents these questions for examination by this Court: Whether See. 706 oftheAPA is compatible with Chevron, or other deference models when a Court is faced with a significant question of statutory law. Whether a de novo, or stare decisis review standard is better suited for statutory law cases than judicial deference models. Whether this Court is better apt to address due process concerns of Chevron deference than the Congress.