Hoctor v. United States Department of Agriculture, 82 F.3d 165 (7th Cir. 1996) (CAP text)

The record

Level

Legal authority

Authority

Hoctor v. United States Department of Agriculture, 82 F.3d 165 (7th Cir. 1996) (CAP text)

Issued

1996-04-25 Apr. 25, 1996

In force

Apr. 25, 1996 (no end date recorded; counted as in force for 120 days)

Character

case

Operative words

Every governmental agency that enforces a less than crystalline statute must interpret the statute, and it does the public a favor if it announces the interpretation in advance of enforcement... (at 167)... We are not saying that an interpretive rule can never have a numerical component.... There is merely an empirical relation between interpretation and generality on the one hand, and legislation and specificity on the other.... Even in a nontechnical area the use of a number as a rule of thumb to guide the application of a general norm will often be legitimately interpretive. (at 170-71)

Notes