OVERVIEW
The United States appeals the dismissal of its indictment charging Ognian Bozarov with conspiracy to violate the Export Administration Act of 1979 (EAA or Act), 50 U.S.C.App. § 2401 et seq., for his role in a scheme to transport computer disc manufacturing equipment to Bulgaria. The district court dismissed the indictment based on its determination that the EAA was unconstitutional under the nondelegation doctrine because it delegated to the Secretary of Commerce legislative authority to control exports and prohibited judicial review of the Secretary’s decisions. We reverse the decision of the district court because we believe that the Act’s preclusion of judicial review does not violate the non-delegation doctrine. Because we interpret the Act to permit courts to review colorable constitutional challenges to the Act and claims that the Secretary has acted completely outside the scope of his delegated powers, we conclude that the EAA satisfies constitutional requirements.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
The Export Administration Act
The EAA authorizes the executive branch to impose export controls for reasons of national security, foreign policy, or domestic short supply. 50 U.S.C.App. §§ 2402(2), (10) and 2404-06. Congress delegated substantial authority under the Act to the Secretary of Commerce. In particular, the EAA requires the Secretary to establish and maintain a Commodity Control List (CCL) and to issue validated licenses for the export of listed goods and technologies.
The Act contains an elaborate set of criteria and internal procedures which governs the Secretary’s imposition of export controls. 50 U.S.C.App. § 2403. For example, the Secretary must make a determination as to the foreign availability of the goods and consider whether the goods are being restricted pursuant to a multilateral agreement. 50 U.S.C.App. §§ 2403(c), 2404(e). Additionally, controls imposed for reasons of national security must be compiled in coordination with other Departments and agencies and be coordinated with allies through international negotiations with the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (COCOM). 50 U.S.C.App. § 2404(c)(3). The Secretary *1039 must periodically review the CCL to reassess the foreign availability of goods and the continuing need for national, security controls. The Secretary must also furnish • detailed reports with respect to each item monitored and, submit annual reports to Congress concerning the administration of the EAA. 50 U.S.C.App. §§ 2406(b), 2413.
The EAA also contains detailed procedures for the processing of applications for validated export licenses for goods listed on the CCL. 50 U.S.C.App. § 2409. For example, the EAA prescribes time limits for decision, provides procedures for a right of appeal of a denial to the Secretary, and permits an applicant to respond to a denial in writing before a final determination is made. If the Secretary fails to act on an application in a timely fashion, an applicant may seek equitable relief in federal district court. The Secretary’s denial of a validated license “shall be final and is not subject to judicial review.” 50 U.S.C.App. § 2412(e). Indeed, all functions, exercised under the Act are explicitly excluded from judicial review and from the protections of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). 50 U.S.C.App. § 2412(a). A willful violation of the Act or any regulation, order or license issued thereunder is a felony punishable by fine and/or imprisonment for not more than ten years. 50 U.S.CApp. § 2410(b).
Bozarov’s Alleged Violation of the EAA
Ognian Bozarov is an international trade official who resides in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 1981, while serving as the deputy general manager of a trade organization devoted to developing industry in Bulgaria, Bozarov entered into negotiations with a Dutch company for the purchase of computer disc manufacturing equipment. The Dutch company then contracted with an American company to supply the equipment. Although the American company appears to have submitted an application for an export license, Bozarov alleges that he was eventually told by his American and Dutch partners that the equipment did not require a license. The relevant commodities, however, were indeed listed on the CCL for national security reasons. After the goods were shipped.in late 1982 and early 1983, a ten count indictment was issued against Bozarov and four others on November 3, 1983.
Despite the issuance of a warrant for the arrest of all the defendants, Bozarov was apparently never notified of the charges against him by the United States Attorney. He learned of the indictment only when the International Trade Association issued a temporary order denying all export privileges to Bozarov and his co-defendants. Bozarov protested the order on the grounds that he had not been a party to any conspiracy and had acted in good faith. In 1986, Bozarov’s export privileges were restored by an administrative law judge in the Commerce Department. Apparently under the impression that the charges against him had been, resolved in his favor by this decision, Bozarov applied for and was granted a visa to travel to the United States to accept an international trade award. This 1990 trip to Puerto Rico was completed without incident. In December 1990, Bozarov was selected to host a trade delegation in San Francisco and again obtained, a travel visa from the United States embassy in Bulgaria. Bozarov was arrested when he arrived in San Francisco.
On January 4, 1991, Bozarov entered a plea of not guilty. On May 20, Bozarov filed a motion to dismiss the indictment, arguing that the ÉAA’s preclusion of judicial review violated the constitutionally mandated separation of powers and the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. After briefing and hearings, the district court rendered its decision in a telephone conference call on June 11. The district court concluded that because the EAA precluded judicial review, the Act was an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to the Executive. The judge based his decision in part on the Supreme Court’s recent decision in
Touby v. United States,
— U.S. -,
STANDARD OF REVIEW
All the questions presented on this appeal are pure questions of law subject to de novo review.
United States v. McConney,
DISCUSSION
I. Bozarov’s standing to challenge the constitutionality of the EAÁ
As a preliminary matter, the government argues that Bozarov’s failure to pursue administrative avenues for relief means that he cannot now challenge the statute’s preclusion of judicial review. We disagree. First, Bozarov did not realize that he was an “exporter” who needed to seek a license, and because he did not seek a license he had no adverse decision to appeal through the EAA’s review procedures. Second, raising a constitutional challenge before the agency would have been a futile exercise because an agency has no authority to declare its governing statute unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has recognized that “[cjonstitutional questions obviously are unsuited to resolution in administrative hearing procedures- and, therefore, access to the courts is essential to the decision of such questions.”
Califano v. Sanders,
The government also contends that Bozarov is not entitled to bring a facial challenge to the EAA because doing so requires him to raise the claims of third parties. We reject this argument. A defendant in a criminal proceeding is entitled to “insist that his conduct be judged in accordance with a rule that is constitutionally valid.” Monaghan,
Overbreadth,
1981 Sup.Ct. Rev. 1, 8;
accord
P. Bator, D. Meltzer, P. Mishkin, & D. Shapiro, Hart & Wechsler’s The Federal Courts and the Federal System 166 (3rd ed. 1988). Thus, in
INS v. Chadha,
II. Does the EAA violate the nondelegation doctrine because it precludes judicial review?
The nondelegation doctrine is rooted in the principle of separation of powers that underlies our tripartite system of government. “The Constitution provides that ‘[a]ll legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States,’ U.S. Const., Art. I, § 1, and we have long insisted that ‘the integrity and maintenance of the system of government ordained by the Constitution’ mandate that Congress generally cannot delegate its legislative power to another Branch.”
Mistretta v. United States,
This appeal involves a question that the Supreme Court apparently has not yet squarely confronted: does a delegation of legislative power to the executive that is statutorily exempt .from judicial review violate the nondelegation doctrine? In essence, this question turns on the purpose of requiring Congress to lay down an “intelligible principle.” The government argues that the purpose of an intelligible principle is simply to channel the discretion of the executive and to permit Congress to determine whether its will is being obeyed. Bo-zarov contends that the purpose of requiring an intelligible principle is to permit a court to ascertain whether the will of Congress has been obeyed. We believe that the government has the better of the argument. 4
The Supreme Court has upheld a number of statutes that precluded judicial review. In
Briscoe v. Bell,
Furthermore, the language of the APA itself also suggests that Congress intended that certain agency actions be immune from judicial review. The APA expressly states that the judicial review provisions of the APA apply except to the extent that statutes preclude judicial review. 5 U.S.C. § 701(a)(1). Both this language and the fact that the Supreme Court has upheld statutory schemes that preclude judicial review suggest that preclusion of review may in some cases be constitutional.
Bozarov argues that these cases are not dispositive of the question here. Perhaps most important, the bulk of these cases did not involve direct challenges to the statutes’ preclusion of judicial review. The Court therefore did not analyze the requirements of the nondelegation doctrine in most of these cases. However, the fact that the Court and Congress both accept that judicial review may be unavailable at least suggests that the availability of review is not always a constitutional necessity. ■ Moreover, although the case did not involve a nondelegation challenge, the Court expressly concluded in
Briscoe,
Bozarov also argues that the vast majority of these cases involved enforcement actions — such as the FDA deciding whether to initiate an investigation of a drug in
Heckler
— and not the kind of legislative decisionmaking arguably at issue in this case. However, Bozarov cites.no authority for drawing a distinction between the exercise of executive authority and legislative authority when evaluating the- need for judicial review, and we conclude that this argument is not very compelling. In both contexts, the central concern is that the agency exercise power only within the scope of its authority and within the confines of constitutional norms. Moreover, the primary concern of the nondelegation doctrine is not that the executive exercise no lawmaking authority; indeed, the Court has recognized that Congress must obtain the assistance of its fellow branches so that the government may function properly.
Mistretta,
Bozarov contends that judicial review is also required to satisfy the nondelegation doctrine and points to a number of cases in which the Court held that no unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority had occurred because Congress provided the “administrative agency with standards guiding its actions such that a court could ‘ascertain whether the will of Congress has been obeyed.’ ”
Skinner v. Mid-America Pipeline Co.,
We also do not agree with Bozarov that the Supreme Court’s decision last term in
Touby,
— U.S. -,
We believe that Bozarov and the district judge are mistaken in the importance they attach to Justice Marshall’s opinion. First, the opinion was simply a concurrence; the majority is under no obligation to address or correct errors in either a concurring or dissenting opinion. Second, it seems unlikely that the majority examined the statute to see if review was available because it believed that review was required; it probably considered the statutory issue in order to avoid having to decide the constitutional question of the necessity of judicial review.
See, e.g., Burns v. United States,
— U.S. -, -,
We are also not persuaded by Bozarov’s argument that the fact that the delegation at issue here eventually leads to criminal sanctions counsels in favor of his position. It is true that broad delegations might be more suspect in cases involving criminal sanctions.
See, e.g., United States v. Robel,
However, “[i]t is well-established that Congress may constitutionally provide a criminal sanction for the violation of regulations which it has empowered the President or an agency to promulgate.”
United States v. Gurrola-Garcia,
The fact that the EAA involves matters of foreign policy and national security also counsels in favor of upholding the Act’s preclusion of judicial review.
Mandel,
In sum, we believe that the Supreme Court cases upholding judicial preclusion of agency decisions, the language of the APA, and the fact that the EAA involves foreign policy issues support our conclusion that the EAA’s preclusion of judicial review is constitutional.
6
We note in closing that our conclusion is bolstered by the fact that certain limited types of judicial review are available under the EAA despite the Act’s seemingly absolute preclusion of review. First, colorable constitutional claims may be reviewed by the courts even when a statute otherwise precludes judicial review.
Webster,
III. Does the preclusion of judicial review violate Bozarov’s right to due process?
As an initial matter, the parties dispute whether the due process issue is properly before this court. Although Bozarov challenged the indictment on due process grounds and the parties briefed this issue below, the district judge did not render an opinion on this issue and Bozarov chose not to brief it thoroughly before this court. We conclude that we may consider this claim now; the due process issue is inextricably bound up with the separation of powers issue and deciding the entire case now furthers our policy against piecemeal litigation through interlocutory appeals.
See TransWorld Airlines, Inc. v. American Coupon Exchange, Inc.,
Identifying Bozarov’s due process challenge is somewhat difficult. He appears to argue at one point that the regulation violates the due process clause because it does not give fair notice of the forbidden conduct. This argument is meritless; the CCL is published in the Code of Federal Regulations at 15 C.F.R. § 399.1.
Cf. Adamo Wrecking Co. v. United States,
Bozarov apparently also argues that the classification of this equipment on the CCL had no basis in fact and that the preclusion of review of this classification violates his due process rights. However, two Ninth Circuit cases have settled the question whether the denial of judicial review of the classification violates due process. In
United States v. Spawr Optical Research, Inc.,
CONCLUSION
. We conclude that the Export Administration Act does not violate the nondelegation doctrine or Bozarov’s due process rights. The district court’s decision is reversed.
REVERSED and REMANDED.
Notes
. The government’s reliance on
Falbo v. United States,
. The government cites a number of cases holding that the defendant could not prevail on a facial challenge outside the First Amendment context without showing that the statute was unconstitutional as applied to him.
See, e.g., United States v. Salerno,
. The Supreme Court has invalidated statutes on nondelegation grounds only twice in the Court's history.
A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Co. v. United States, 295
U.S. 495,
.A Massachusetts district court has also rejected a nondelegation challenge to the constitutionality of the EAA.
United States v. Moller-Butcher,
. Bozarov argues that if the majority did not1 agree with Marshall, it would have simply decided the case on the ground that judicial review is not required. He believes that the majority would not have examined the statute to see if judicial review was available if it did not believe that review was required. He also suggests that it is "inconceivable” that the majority would not have addressed Marshall’s assertion in the majority opinion if it disagreed with his assertion that judicial review was a constitutional necessity.
. We emphasize that our holding today is limited to the EAA's preclusion of judicial review; we express no opinion on the constitutionality of other statutes that prohibit all review.
. For example, the government has conceded that the courts may review Bozarov’s nondelegation challenge to the EAA because it presents a colorable constitutional claim.
. The government suggested at oral argument that the Court’s recent decision in
Board of Governors v. MCorp Financial,
— U.S. -,
. The government also argues that even if the nondelegation doctrine requires judicial review, that principle is not applicable in this case because the Secretary’s decisions under the Act represent nonjusticiable political questions. Because we conclude that the Act does not violate the nondelegation doctrine, we need not reach the question of the impact of the political question doctrine on this case.
