Federal Appeals Court Dismisses CSA Lawsuit Alleging Regulators Broke Rules

A federal appeals court on June 17 dismissed a lawsuit alleging that federal regulators did not follow the law when they implemented the Compliance, Safety, Accountability ratings program.

The Alliance for Safe, Efficient and Competitive Truck Transportation said PowerPoint presentations that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration posted on its website in 2012 represented an “astonishing” change in agency policy, which the agency failed to subject to notice-and-comment rulemaking.

“We are not astonished,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said in its ruling. “In our view — and the agency’s — the PowerPoint presentations do nothing more than explain the agency’s Safety Measurement System.”

The court also said that because that system was announced and implemented in 2010, the alliance, made up primarily of brokers, shippers and carriers, did not file its 2012 lawsuit in a timely manner.