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.
