Were the Forest Service regulations a proper subject of judicial review?
The APA allows members of the public to seek judicial review of an agency action if they have suffered a legal wrong because of the action. 5 U.S.C. § 702. An “agency action” includes “the whole or part of an agency rule . . . or the equivalent.” 5 U.S.C. § 551(13). One of the main issues in this case is whether the Forest Service regulations constituted an “agency action” under the APA. The Forest Service argues that broad regulations rarely qualify as agency actions: regulations may be challenged only to the extent that an agency has applied them to a specific incident. See Brief for Petitioners at 16. According to the Forest Service, the only agency action for which the APA compelled review was the Burnt Ridge Project, not the Forest Service regulations themselves. See id. at 14. The APA authorizes judicial review of agency action in two special circumstances: review is proper if a statute expressly allows it, and review of “final agency action” is proper if no other adequate judici
