## Facts

- Congress directed the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Board) to set standards ensuring that debit-card interchange fees charged to merchants are “reasonable and proportional” to an issuer’s transaction costs.
- In 2011, the Board issued Regulation II, which set a maximum interchange fee for covered debit-card issuers (commonly described as $0.21 per transaction plus 0.05% of the transaction’s value, with a possible fraud-prevention adjustment).
- Corner Post, Inc., a North Dakota convenience store, opened for business in 2018 and began accepting debit cards, thereby paying interchange fees governed by Regulation II.
- In 2021, Corner Post joined an existing lawsuit challenging Regulation II under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), alleging the regulation was facially invalid because its maximum fee was unlawfully high.
- The Board invoked 28 U.S.C. § 2401(a), which generally bars civil actions against the United States unless filed “within six years after the right of action first accrues.”
- The district court dismissed Corner Post’s APA claim as untimely, reasoning that the right of action accrued in 2011 when Regulation II was issued.
- The Eighth Circuit affirmed, holding that a facial APA challenge to a regulation accrues at issuance because it alleges the regulation is invalid “as written,” not based on later events.
- Other circuits had taken the same issuance-based approach, while the Sixth Circuit had held that an APA claim accrues only when the plaintiff is injured by final agency action.
- The Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve the split over when an APA claim “first accrues” under § 2401(a).

## Issues

1. For purposes of 28 U.S.C. § 2401(a), does an APA claim challenging an agency regulation accrue when the regulation is issued, or when the particular plaintiff is first injured by the regulation as final agency action?
2. Does labeling an APA challenge as “facial” change the accrual analysis under § 2401(a)?

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed and remanded in a 6–3 decision authored by Justice Barrett.
- The Court held that an APA claim does not accrue under § 2401(a) until the plaintiff is injured by final agency action.
- The Court rejected the view that facial challenges categorically accrue at the time a rule is issued.
- Because Corner Post first alleged injury no earlier than 2018, when it began accepting debit cards and paying interchange fees, its 2021 APA claim was within six years and not time-barred.
- Justice Kavanaugh filed a concurrence.
- Justice Jackson dissented, joined by Justices Sotomayor and Kagan.
- The Court did not resolve the merits of Corner Post’s challenge to Regulation II and sent the case back for further proceedings; it also assumed without deciding that vacatur is an available APA remedy.

## Legal Principles

- A claim generally accrues when the plaintiff has a complete and present cause of action—when the plaintiff can file suit and obtain relief.
- The APA authorizes suit only by a person “suffering legal wrong” or “adversely affected or aggrieved” by agency action (5 U.S.C. § 702), and judicial review generally requires “final agency action” (5 U.S.C. § 704); accordingly, an APA claim accrues only when the plaintiff is injured by final agency action.
- Section 2401(a) is a general limitations provision keyed to when the “right of action first accrues,” which depends on when the cause of action becomes available to the plaintiff, not merely on when the government completed the challenged action.
- The facial/as-applied distinction describes the breadth of the challenge (whether the rule is invalid in all applications or in a specific application), but it does not by itself determine when the plaintiff’s right of action accrues.
- Policy concerns about allowing later-injured or newly formed entities to bring challenges to older regulations cannot override the statutory text Congress enacted in § 2401(a) and the APA.

## Conclusion

Corner Post held that the six-year limitations period in 28 U.S.C. § 2401(a) for APA suits begins when the plaintiff is first injured by the challenged final agency action, even when the plaintiff brings a facial challenge to a regulation; therefore, Corner Post’s 2021 suit against Regulation II was timely because its alleged injury began no earlier than 2018.


Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 144 S. Ct. 2440 (2024)