Law, Business and Society 11th Edition by Tony McAdams

Exercise 3

Agency rules and orders may be challenged in court. Historically, however, the courts have taken a rather narrow approach to judicial review. The jurists, being generalists in the field of law, have been reluctant to overrule the judgment of specialists, and very crowded judicial calendars act as a natural brake on activist judicial review. For those reasons, judges readily sustain the judgment of the agency where reasonable. Of course, the courts overrule the agencies when appropriate, and review of controversial, high visibility rules such as many of those issued by the Environmental Protection Agency is common.
Not surprisingly, judicial review of agency decisions raises a variety of technical issues of law. Cases turn on questions like these:
Are the agency's findings of fact supported by substantial evidence in the record as a whole
While these issues are technically important, their detailed exploration is not necessary for our purposes. The case that follows will be our only consideration of the formalities of judicial review. This 8-0 U.S. Supreme Court ruling examines the question of when the government should regulate distasteful expression over the regulated airways.