Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Agency Discretion
In the case of Heckler v. Cheney, the respondents are inmates who have been sentenced to death by lethal injection. They were sentenced under the laws of Oklahoma and Texas.
The respondents' first petition was to the FDA, with the claim that the drugs were not approved for human execution, and would not result in the quick, painless death intended, as they were also not likely to be administered by trained personnel. The respondents therefore demanded that labels be changed to include a warning relating to its inappropriate use for execution, and that they be removed from prisons.
The FDA Commissioner refused the request, asserting that the FDA is not in a position to interfere with state criminal justice systems, in this way exercising a choice under discretion in respect of criminal justice law. This is however a very complicated issue, in that agency discretion, and its rights and manner of using this discretion, are at times very arbitrary and vague issues. Difficulty is for example created by the fact that FDA jurisdiction in this particular matter is unclear. The agency therefore arbitrarily uses its discretion to refuse the respondents' request.
The case presents a number of difficulties in terms of reviewability. The agency does have the right to refuse the requested action to remove drugs as a result of misbranding, and relating to the fact that an approved drug is used for an unapproved purpose. The respondents' claims in this regard are not relevant to the right of the agency to used discretion in its refusal to take action. Because of the very vagueness relating to the jurisdiction of the FDA, the agency does have the right to make a final decision in this regard, which it deems most beneficial for the judiciary parties involved.
As the respondents were mainly irrelevant in their arguments in appeal attempts, the agency has the right of discretion in its final decision to refuse.
Source
Hall, Daniel E. (1994). Administrative Law: Bureaucracy in a Democracy. New Jersey: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
This alternative essentially redistributes some of the power within the department in order to facilitate more successful service in individual communities. This clearly makes discretion appropriate based on the individual needs of the community. Police Chiefs need to develop "new concepts to better satisfy the demands and needs of the citizens they serve," and as such, may have to use discretion in how the approach and interact with unique
Ethics and Discretion in Probation "…Encourage relationships with colleagues of such character to promote mutual respect and cultivate a professional cooperation with each segment…" [and] "respect, serve and empathize with the victims of law violations allegedly committed by children…" (Denton County Juvenile Probation Department) What ethical considerations are important in probation departments in the United States? What are the ethical expectations for communities when there are offenders out from prison and on probation?
This is one of the reasons that the United States Supreme Court has noted the difficulty in distinguishing common crime from the "gray zone of socially acceptable and economically justifiable business conduct. Prosecutors are not eager to 'overcriminalize' and the practice of too readily extending criminal law to areas of which it is not suited is known as "overcriminalization." For these reasons, the statues of white-collar crimes are broad and fuzzy.
Role of Discretion in Law Enforcement Human civilization has always been defined by the establishment of ethical codes, laws which individuals must obey for the greater good of society, and for every rule that mankind has devised there have been those willing to transgress. Criminal misconduct has remained a pervasive and prevalent issue across all cultures and historical eras, spanning the spectrum of age, gender and socioeconomic status, and the invariable
Organizational Behavior Case Study ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR Residential care facility's staff plays an important role in the daily lives of residents; unfortunately these facilities are usually faced with organizational obstacles and lack of information that prevents them from taking proper care of residents (Smith, 1998). This organizational behavioral case study is about a residential care facility which is part of a parent company that runs six different residential care facilities. The management of
Tennessee Scrap Recyclers Association v. Bredesen, the court affirmed the law in question and upheld the state's ability to set the terms under which it would allow transactions regarding scrap metal to take place. The court noted that the problem the law was designed to thwart was a local issue and thus did not violate the Fifth Amendment's Commerce Clause (State law, 2009, Cengage). Also, the additional burdens imposed