Perched before us is a rara avis — an authentic case of first impression. Our efforts to classify this strange bird are hampered not only by the absence of direct precedents but also by the inexplicitness of the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA or Act), 28 U.S.C. § 2412 (1982 & Supp.V 1987).
The case took wing as an application for writ of mandamus to this court, whereby petitioners succeeded in annulling a gag order improvidently issued by an administrative law judge (ALJ).
In re Perry,
By resort to legislative history and congressional purpose, we have come to conclude that there is no room in the EAJA nest for claims like this one. Accordingly, we answer the initial question in the negative and deny the motion for fees.
I. BACKGROUND
Because the underlying facts and travel are amply set forth in our earlier opinion,
In re Perry,
The AU issued several orders warning that if any party used the proceedings or the information developed therein for “ex-ploitive purposes,” the offender’s participatory rights would be jeopardized.
In re Perry,
In the best of circumstances, interlocutory review is available only in the Commission’s discretion; on this occasion review was automatically refused when OSHRC, lacking a quorum because of vacancies (two commissioners’ offices were unfilled), was unable to act on the request within 30 days.
See
29 U.S.C. § 661(f); 29 C.F.R. § 2200.73(b) (1988);
see also In re Perry,
We took jurisdiction and held that the AU’s interference with petitioners’ First Amendment rights so far “exceeded] the proper scope of [his] authority as to constitute a usurpation of power.”
In re Perry,
II. THE ANATOMY OF OSHRC
The principal purpose of the Safety/Health Act was to improve working conditions by formulating and overseeing occupational safety and health standards in the work place.
See, e.g.,
29 U.S.C. § 651(b). The law vested rulemaking and enforcement powers in the Secretary of Labor, who exercises those powers through OSHA.
See
29 U.S.C. §§ 655, 657-59. But, adjudicatory responsibilities lie elsewhere; it is OSHRC, not OSHA or the Secretary, which is given the task of “carrying out adjudicatory functions under [the Act].” 29 U.S.C. § 651(b)(3). In a nutshell, “Congress gave OSHA the power to make safety rules and to enforce them; but it gave OSHRC, an independent administrative body, the power to adjudicate violations of OSHA’s rules and regulations.”
Donovan v. A. Amorello & Sons, Inc.,
The duarchy operates in the following manner. The Secretary, through OSHA, promulgates safety and health standards for businesses. 29 U.S.C. § 655(a)-(e). OSHA is authorized to make inspections and investigations to insure compliance. 29 U.S.C. § 657. If OSHA concludes that its standards have been violated, it may issue citations and specify abatement periods. 29 U.S.C. § 658(a). Once such a citation is contested, OSHRC jurisdiction attaches. A hearing is held before an *537 OSHRC functionary, an AU, who, after taking evidence, files a report (Report). 29 U.S.C. § 659(c). The Report may suggest affirming or reversing OSHA’s order or modifying it in some way(s). Id. OSHRC, which by statute is to be composed of three members, 29 U.S.C. § 661(a), receives the Report. If OSHRC directs administrative review within 30 days, it then conducts such review, and thereafter accepts, rejects, or modifies the Report in whole or in part, 29 U.S.C. § 659(c). Otherwise, the Report becomes the Commission’s final order. 29 U.S.C. § 661(j). Final orders of the Commission are reviewable in the appropriate court of appeals on the petition of “[a]ny person adversely affected or aggrieved,” 29 U.S.C. § 660(a), or of the Secretary. 29 U.S.C. § 660(b).
Whether or not plenary administrative review is undertaken, “[t]he Commission’s function is to act as a neutral arbiter_”
Cuyahoga Valley Ry. Co. v. United Transportation Union,
The commission was envisioned by its creators to be similar to a district court. It was established to settle disputes between employers and the Secretary of Labor over citations issued by the Secretary’s inspectors. The commission, like a district court, has no duty or interest in defending its decision on appeal. As a purely adjudicative entity, it has no stake in the outcome of the litigation.
Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Int’l Union v. OSHRC,
III. DISCUSSION
We have discovered only two cases which touch at all upon the issue of whether an EAJA award can be rendered against a pure adjudicator as an aftermath of civil litigation.
3
In
S & H Riggers & Erectors,
*538
Inc. v. OSHRC,
With respect, we decline to emulate these examples. As we see it, the threshold question is whether EAJA extends to purely adjudicative entities. Only if that question is answered affirmatively should we consider whether the government has shown either that its position was “substantially justified” or that “special circumstances” render an EAJA award unjust. See 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(1)(A); see also Appendix (questions 2 & 3). We proceed, therefore, to the heart of the matter: whether the actions of a purely adjudicatory entity taken in the course of an adjudication are beyond EAJA’s reach.
A. What EAJA Says.
The “American Rule” is that, absent a contrary statutory directive, contract provision, or other established fee-shifting mechanism, litigants must bear the costs inherent in their engagement of counsel.
See Alyeska Pipeline Co. v. Wilderness Society,
We turn, then, to the statute, mindful that interpretation must begin with the wording which Congress saw fit to employ.
See Chevron U.S.A., Inc., v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.,
The Commission looks at the same statute in a much different light. It asseverates that a challenge to an order issued by a governmental board acting in a purely adjudicative capacity is clearly not a “civil action ... brought by or against the United States.” 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(1)(A) (emphasis supplied). Rather, respondent interprets the “by or against” language as restricting the intended scope of the law to actions in which the (federal) fee-target and the (private) fee-seeker occupy adversarial positions vis-a-vis each other (say, enforcer versus defendant or regulator versus regulated person) as opposed to those in which *539 the target merely referees a dispute between the fee-seeker and another party (whether or not the “other” party is also a federal actor). On this reading, an adjudicator would not become an adverse party simply because one of its orders is challenged.
The arguments on both sides fall short. It is readily evident that the words of the Act are not dispositive. Taken at face value, the language is ambiguous in the sense that more than one plausible interpretation is inferable from the statute’s unvarnished words. Because EAJA neither expressly allows, nor expressly prohibits, an award of attorneys’ fees against a purely adjudicatory body, “we must turn to the legislative purpose and history in search of guidance.” Hern
andez-Colon v. Secretary of Labor,
B. Why Adjudicators Are Exempt.
“A primary purpose in enacting the EAJA ... was to remove the obstacle of litigation expenses, including attorneys’ fees, so that litigants may challenge unreasonable governmental action and vindicate their rights in court.”
Crooker v. EPA,
Let us be perfectly clear. We do not imply that judges are incapable of egregious error or unjustified rulings. Indeed, as our earlier opinion attests, we recognize that such regrettable incidents can occur.
See In re Perry,
An intent to exclude adjudicators from EAJA’s reach is also discernible from the 1980 House Report, which recognized the Act as “restpng] on the premise that a party who chooses to litigate an issue against the government is not only representing his or her own vested interest but is also refining and formulating public policy.” H.R.Rep. No. 1418,
supra,
1980 U.S. Code Cong. & Admin.News at 4988. Where an entity is insulated from, and unable to influence, official policy, this legislative purpose would not be promoted by bringing the entity within EAJA’s sphere. As we have already indicated,
see supra
at 537 & note 2, the Commission does not set policy in any meaningful sense. To the exact contrary, the Safety/Health Act “imposes policy-making responsibility upon the Secretary, not [OSHRC].”
Marshall v. OSHRC,
The view that EAJA extends only to agencies with regulatory and enforcement powers is likewise suggested by the frequent references in the statute’s legislative history to obligations of the executive branch, e.g., H.R.Rep. No. 1418, supra, 1980 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News at 4989; to “regulatory practices,” e.g., id. at 4993; and to the government’s “enforcement efforts,” e.g., id. at 4990. It is against such duties that “the public interest in encouraging parties to vindicate their rights” must be balanced. Id. at 4989. In stark contrast, the legislative history makes absolutely no mention of the government’s well-established adjudicatory role. Nor is there anything which might suggest, directly or indirectly, some perceived necessity for permitting rights to be vindicated against the sovereign when the latter errs in the course of adjudication. We take this silence to imply a lack of legislative interest, at the time EAJA was passed, in redesigning the processes already available for correction of judicial error. Put another way, the absence of any attempt to construct a balance between the public interest in safeguarding citizens’ rights and the public interest in improving the techniques and results of adjudicatory practices is telling evidence that Congress did not intend to meddle with “pure” adjudication.
We also think it significant to recall that EAJA authorizes attorneys’ fees with respect to
administrative
proceedings, 5 U.S.C. § 504 (1982 & Supp.IV 1986), as well as
judicial
proceedings, 28 U.S.C. § 2412. On the administrative side, fee awards may inure to prevailing parties only when “[a]n agency ... conducts an adversary adjudication.” 5 U.S.C. § 504(a)(1). The law defines “adversary adjudication” as one “in which the position of the United States is represented by counsel or otherwise.”
Id.
at § 504(b)(1)(C). The legislative history underscores Congress’s determination that, as respects administrative proceedings in which the government does not appear in an adversary role, sovereign immunity remains intact. The Conference Report issued when EAJA was first enacted explained that the statutory definition of “adversary adjudication” was intended to “preclude[] an award in a situation where an agency ... does not take a position in the adjudication.” H.R.Conf.Rep. No. 1434, 96th Cong., 2d Sess. 23,
reprinted in
1980 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 5003, 5012. Congress regarded it as a matter of “basic fairness that the United States not be liable in an administrative proceeding” under such circumstances. H.R.Rep. No. 1418,
supra,
1980 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin. News at 4991. The bare fact that an agency acting in an adjudicatory capacity rules against a private party, unjustifiably, is insufficient, absent the sovereign’s adversary participation, to support a fee award under section 504.
Cf., e.g., Owens v. Brock,
In our opinion, these sentiments inform an enlightened interpretation of section 2412(d). The parallel administrative/judicial provisions should, we think, be construed in pari passu. In terms of court cases, the Act explicitly limits the sovereign immunity waiver to situations involving “civil action[s] ... brought by or against the United States.” 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(1)(A). Congress’s unmistakable intent to disallow fee awards for administrative proceedings in which the government is an adjudicator rather than an adversary casts a strong light upon the lan *541 guage which Congress chose to use in regard to civil actions. We can hypothesize no sound reason why the government, qua nonadversarial adjudicator, should be treated differently vis-a-vis EAJA awards in judicial, as opposed to administrative, proceedings. We believe that Congress meant to be consistent throughout. See H.R.Rep. No. 1418, supra, 1980 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News at 4992 (“Section 2412(d) authorizes an award of reasonable fees and expenses in judicial proceedings analogous to the awards authorized in adversary adjudications under [5 U.S.C. § 504].”). In turn, consistency demands the conclusion that EAJA imposes precisely the same requirement of adversary status with respect to civil litigation as it does with respect to administrative proceedings. 4 We so rule.
C. Petitioners’ Counter-Arguments.
We have carefully considered all of petitioners’ arguments in favor of a contrary result and have studied the cases upon which they rely. Although the matter is not free from doubt, we remain persuaded that EAJA was not intended to encompass “pure” adjudicators (like OSHRC). We deal seriatim with petitioners’ major initiatives.
1. Legislative Purpose. Petitioners contend that EAJA’s purpose of creating a better balance between citizens and sovereign, see, e.g., H.R.Rep. No. 1418, supra, 1980 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News at 4984 (EAJA intended, in part, to reduce “disparity between the resources and expertise of ... individuals and their government”); id. at 4987 (EAJA designed to “plac[e] the Federal Government and civil litigants on a completely equal footing”), necessitates bringing purely adjudicative entities within EAJA’s sphere. To us, this legislative purpose seems to cut in the opposite direction. Entities like OSHRC or a federal district court, by definition, can never be on a “completely equal footing” with the parties over whose cases they preside. Adjudicators and litigants are distinct breeds — and fee-shifting will not paper over the genetic differences. Thus, it seems unlikely that a Congress concerned with eliminating disparities could have had purely adjudicative bodies in mind.
The conclusion that EAJA did not address this form of “genetic” inequality derives support from another part of the legislative history. Congress enacted EAJA with the aim of holding “the United States ... to the same standard in litigating as other parties.” H.R.Rep. No. 1418, supra, 1980 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News at 4996 (emphasis supplied). That is litigant language, strongly suggesting the Act was meant to equalize the position of a private party vis-a-vis the government only when the two were opponents in a civil action. We know of no way to conduct a meaningful judicial-type hearing while holding the judge to the same standards as the litigants. The government qua adjudicator is, quite simply, a breed apart.
Nor does the 1985 legislative history support the assertion that the broad purpose of encouraging challenges to unreasonable government action would be undermined if attorneys’ fees could not be awarded against adjudicative entities such as OSHRC. Petitioners think they have found live ammunition in H.R.Rep. No. 120, a document which criticized both courts and federal agencies for construing EAJA too grudgingly. E.g., id., 1985 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News at 137. Yet, they are firing blanks. Congress’s criticism was explicitly confined to how judges and administrators had construed two particular terms: “position of the United States” and “substantially justified.” Id. at 137-38. It distorts reality to proclaim that this dissatisfaction was directed at a too-parochial view of the class of agencies amenable to fee awards *542 under EAJA. Indeed, the failure of the 1985 Report to discuss that subject at all counts in OSHRC’s favor.
2.
Party Status.
Petitioners urge that a different result is mandated because OSHRC was named as a respondent and answered the mandamus petition. Unless we are prepared to sacrifice substance and exalt form, however, the circumstance that mandamus was employed and OSHRC named should not prove determinative. OSHRC was a party in name only.
See United States v. Haldeman,
3. The 1985 Amendments. Petitioners attempt to show that, even if EAJA did not initially swell to include purely adjudicatory bodies, such a tumefaction occurred in 1985, when EAJA was reenacted, amended, and made permanent. The 1985 amendments undertook for the first time to define the phrase “position of the United States.” Petitioners asseverate that, in doing so, Congress swept adjudicators into the EAJA net. But, the amendment’s evolution reveals no such intent.
In defining the phrase, “position of the United States,” Congress explained that “[cjourts have been divided” on whether the term “referred to the agency action which was the subject of the lawsuit or only the government’s litigation position.” H.R.Rep. No. 120,
supra,
1985 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News at 135. The 1985 amendments removed all doubt, stipulating that both the underlying action and the government’s litigation position must be “substantially justified.”
See Sierra Club v. Secretary of the Army,
In retrofitting the terminology, Congress took dead aim at the controversial holding in
Spencer v. NLRB,
This clarification — and it was merely a clarification, not a turnabout
6
— cannot fairly be read to imply an intent to extend EAJA to purely adjudicatory entities. Because the underlying action may often have been taken by the very same agency that thereafter appears in the subsequent litigation — as was true in
Spencer
— specifically including underlying agency actions within the “position” rubric signifies no necessary plan to ensnare purely adjudicative entities (which by definition do not take “litigation positions”) within the toils of the Act. The point, we think, is quickly placed beyond peradventure by a review of the cases cited in the legislative history.
See
H.R.Rep. No. 120,
supra,
1985 Cong.
&
Admin.News at 140 n. 21. In each and all of them, the underlying position was taken by a government agency acting in a regulatory or enforcement capacity.
See, e.g., Ashburn v. United States,
4. Petitioners’ Cases. Petitioners fare no better when marshalling the caselaw which they claim supports their interpretation of EAJA. We discuss briefly the decisions featured most prominently in petitioners’ armamentarium.
In
Pulliam v. Allen,
Building on Pulliam, petitioners argue that immunity “should not be implied in the absence of clear legislative intent.” Petitioners’ Brief at 17. Their logic is anfractuous — and wrong. Where Congress has legislated in a permissible fashion, the courts’ allegiance must be to effectuating the legislative scheme. Therefore, personal common-law immunities— which Congress can lawfully override if it chooses to do so — must bend to the congressional will. It follows, then, that a judge’s common-law immunity must yield in respect to a statute like 42 U.S.C. § 1988. It does not follow — indeed, it stands reason on its head — to suggest that a kindred approach be employed where, as here, the government’s sovereign immunity, rather than a judge’s personal immunity, is at stake.
The federal sovereign is immune from an award of attorneys’ fees in
*544
the absence of a statute to the contrary.
See Ruckelshaus,
In sum, there is a fundamental distinction at work. Civil rights statutes like 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1988 are to be construed generously to effectuate their salutary purposes,
see, e.g., Williams v. City of Fairburn,
Petitioners’ second main case is
Guerrero v. Marsh,
Petitioners also cite three cases arising in the context of the Social Security Act:
Garcia v. Schweiker,
IV. CONCLUSION
To recapitulate, we have been able to find no clear indication of a congressional intent to extend EAJA liability to purely adjudicative entities. Although the wording of the Act seems to leave the question open, the legislative purpose and history strongly suggest that Congress did not have adjudicatory functions in mind when enacting EAJA or when later amending it. And, any doubt must be resolved in favor of nonapplicability since courts are duty bound to construe stingily waivers of the federal government’s sovereign immunity.
OSHRC is such a creature: a purely adjudicative board. It is not adversarial in the requisite EAJA sense; that is to say, when — as in this case — a litigant seeks to overturn a Commission ruling, OSHRC is at most a nominal party (not charged with defending the correctness of the decision). Moreover, as a “pure” adjudicator, OSHRC is bereft of policymaking responsibilities and uninvolved in regulation or enforcement activities. In light of these considerations, EAJA is not a natural habitat for attorneys’ fee applications levelled against the Commission.
We need go no further. While petitioners were entitled to employ mandamus to correct a glaring wrong and vindicate rights assured to them by the Constitution, EAJA does not serve to shift the expenses of their effort — though it was successful— to the erring adjudicator.
Motion for fees denied.
APPENDIX
United States Courts of Appeals for the First Circuit
ORDER OF COURT
ENTERED: February 6, 1989
Petitioners have moved for an award of attorneys’ fees and costs under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), 28 U.S.C. § 2412. We interpret the motion as directed only against respondent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) and not against the federal Department of Labor. OSHRC has objected.
We reject out of hand OSHRC’s contention that the EAJA application is untimely or is merely a petition for rehearing masquerading as a fee application. The remaining ground of OSHRC’s objection, *546 however, appears to present a more substantial question, one of potentially pervasive importance.
As we see it, the issue has three parts: (1) Can a purely adjudicative governmental entity, like OSHRC, ever be held to suffer a fee award under the EAJA? (2) If so, under what circumstances? (3) Lastly, if such an award can lawfully be made, is one appropriate in this instance?
Because of the likely importance of the question, and the apparent lack of controlling precedent, we ask that the parties formally brief the three parts of the issue described in the preceding paragraph. In the course thereof, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, they should furnish us their insights into (a) what statutory difference it makes, under EAJA, whether an agency is “purely adjudicative” or not; (b) the effect (if any) of the 1984 amendments to the EAJA, especially 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(2)(D) (1985), on the issue presented; and (c) whether OSHRC’s lack of a quorum could validly be considered as a “special circumstance[ ]” as that term is used in the EAJA? See 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(1)(A) (1985).
In view of the fact that the issue before us may well implicate government agencies other than OSHRC, we ask that the Justice Department, in filing its brief on OSHRC’s behalf, certify that the position asserted on' this motion is the position of the Department of Justice generally, which the Department believes is correct in respect to all other agencies similarly situated.
The briefing schedule shall be as follows: Petitioners are to file their opening brief within 20 days of the date of this order. Respondent is to file its brief within 40 days of the date of this order. Petitioners, if they so elect, may file a reply brief within 10 days thereafter.
The case will be scheduled for oral argument on May 3, 1989 on the regular argument calendar.
Notes
. We attach as an appendix a copy of our February 6, 1989 order. Our answer to the first question disposes of the motion for fees and renders it unnecessary for us to consider the two other questions which we posed.
. Two circuits, somewhat out of tune with the rest, have taken the view that, though principally an adjudicatory entity, OSHRC is empowered to adopt policies in the course of adjudication; and therefore, to appear as a party in the courts of appeals to defend those policies.
See Diamond Roofing Co. v. OSHRC,
. The pertinent provision of EAJA reads:
Except as otherwise specifically provided by statute, a court shall award to a prevailing party other than the United States fees and other expenses ... incurred by that party in any civil action (other than cases sounding in tort), including proceedings for judicial review of agency action, brought by or against the United States in any court having jurisdiction of that action, unless the court finds that the position of the United States was substantially justified or that special circumstances make an award unjust.
*538 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(1)(A). We note specifically that petitioners assert no claim under 28 U.S.C. § 2412(b).
.
Sullivan v. Hudson,
— U.S. -,
. We cannot draw a contrary inference merely because OSHRC filed a response to the petition. In the first place, we ordered OSHRC to respond. In the second place, OSHRC refrained from taking any position on the intrinsic merits of the gag order or consequent exclusion. In contrast to GenDy’s response defending the propriety of the ALJ’s rulings, the Commission limited its reply to its institutional interests, questioning the wisdom of mandamus as a surrogate for appellate review, but going no further. Because OSHRC did not cross the line from adjudication to advocacy, we need not decide what effect (if any) an adjudicator's voluntary assumption of an advocacy role or full-blown party status might have in terms of EAJA liability.
. Notwithstanding
Spencer
and cases to like effect, other courts had held that the government had the burden of justifying both its underlying position and its litigation position.
See, e.g., Rawlings
v.
Heckler,
.
Tyler Business Services, Inc. v. NLRB,
. Although perhaps supererogatory, it ought to be noted that EAJA is different in scope and purpose from 42 U.S.C. § 1988. One difference is that
all
plaintiffs who prevail in section 1983 actions are eligible for the balm of section 1988.
See Pulliam,