CA9 on SENTRI, APA: Jajati v. CBP

Jajati v. CBP

"We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We hold that § 701(a)(2) does not bar judicial review of Jajati’s APA claims. Although CBP has broad discretion to revoke SENTRI memberships, the APA itself recognizes that discretion can be “abuse[d].” 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(A). And the law governing SENTRI provides meaningful standards under which courts can review whether CBP wielded its discretion in a permissible manner. Jajati’s case is therefore not one of those rare instances in which we lack jurisdiction because “there is truly no law to apply.” See Perez Perez v. Wolf, 943 F.3d 853, 861 (9th Cir. 2019) (internal quotation marks omitted). Hence, we reverse the district court’s order which granted CBP’s motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. We remand with instructions that the district court consider, in the first instance, whether CBP’s decision to revoke Jajati’s SENTRI membership violated the APA."

[Hats off to Saman Nasseri!  Audio of the oral argument is here.]