ACCG Test Case Update

Brief Filed in ACCG Test Case

http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2011/11/brief-filed-in-accg-test-case.html
by Peter Tompa

The ACCG has filed this brief in the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit seeking the reversal of Judge Blake's dismissal of its case to test the validity of import restrictions on coins of "Cypriot type" or coins "from China." See http://www.accg.us/News/Item
/ACCG_Appellant_Brief_filed_in_Cyprus
_China_coin_seizure.aspx

This is from the summary of argument:

The District Court acknowledged that judicial review is appropriate where the Executive’s discretion is limited by statute, but then failed to consider whether the Assistant Secretary, ECA operated outside the law when she imposed import restrictions on ancient coins. Moreover, the District Court’s ruling turns the APA’s presumption of reviewability on its head. At a bare minimum, the District Court should have considered whether the Assistant Secretary, ECA, complied with the CPIA’s requirements or acted ultra vires, and also should have conducted a more thorough, APA-style review of the final agency actions to impose import restrictions on Cypriot and Chinese coins. Finally, the District Court’s rulings that it was unnecessary for China to ask for import restrictions on coins or for the Government to comply with the CPIA’s “first discovery requirement” are at odds with the plain meaning of the CPIA. In particular, extending import restrictions to all unprovenanced coins raises constitutional problems that could be avoided if the “first discovery requirement” were given its plain meaning.