U.S. Supreme Court Expands Ability to Challenge Government Regulations

Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated a 2021 complaint against the Federal Reserve Board that had been dismissed as time-barred under the Administrative Procedure Act, holding that the statute of limitations for an APA claim does not begin to run until the plaintiff has been injured by a final agency action. 

As background, the plaintiff merchant alleged that the Board’s 2011 regulation permits debit card interchange fees higher than permissible under 15 U.S.C. § 1693o-2(a)(3)(A).  The regulation was promulgated in 2011, and thus, according to the Board, the statute of limitations for challenging that regulation as a final agency action expired in 2017, before the plaintiff was created.  The Board’s position was the subject of a circuit split, with several courts of appeals siding with the Board.  The district court granted the Board’s motion to dismiss the case as time-barred, citing the 6-year statute of limitations for challenging a final agency action under §2401(a).  The Eight Circuit affirmed the dismissal, and the plaintiff appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court held that a claim brought under the APA does not accrue “until the plaintiff is injured by a final agency action.”  Prior precedent held that the APA requires a plaintiff to show that it has been injured by a final agency action at the outset of the case.  And the applicable statute of limitations requires a plaintiff to sue within six years after the plaintiff’s cause of action accrues.  Taken together, the statutes require final agency action and injury to the plaintiff before a cause of action accrues.  Thus, the statute of limitations did not begin to run at the time the regulation was promulgated, and the plaintiff’s suit was timely.