Jurisdiction and administrative remedies

Another great case description from Lawrence Friedman on his Customs Law blog, "Are Excises Taxes Protestable?". Some of what he discusses is specific to customs problems, but the lesson is useful.

When Customs collects a tax for another agency, is it making a protestable decision? That is an important question. If the answer is yes, then the U.S. Court of International Trade has subject matter jurisdiction over the denied protest. If the answer is no, the importer has to look elsewhere for relief.

...

Whenever 1581(a) [the protest review process - the administrative remedy] is available as a means of getting into Court, the usual result is that no other means of establishing jurisdiction will work unless the protest process is "manifestly inadequate." The Court did not see any such inadequacy in this case. Finally, the plaintiff's valiant effort at latching on to the Administrative Procedure Act to establish jurisdiction to review a "final agency action," was also unavailing. The APA does not provide aggrieved parties a means of circumventing the established path to judicial review. In light of the non-futile availability of the administrative protest, the APA was no help to the plaintiff. The CIT dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.

EMM