## Facts

- Tivian Laboratories, Inc. was a small corporation producing plating solutions, resins, waxes, and chemical products for metal casting and finishing.
- In October 1975, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent Tivian a letter requesting detailed information about the company’s acquisition, use, and disposal of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and similar substances.
- The EPA stated the request was part of an investigation to determine sources and amounts of such substances entering the environment and to assess possible adverse effects.
- The EPA relied on information-gathering provisions in the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Act and the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Act authorizing the Administrator to require owners or operators of sources to provide information the Administrator may “reasonably require” to carry out statutory responsibilities.
- Tivian repeatedly refused to provide the requested information.
- In May 1976, the United States filed an enforcement action in federal district court seeking an order compelling Tivian to comply with the EPA request.
- The district court rejected Tivian’s constitutional objections and ordered compliance; Tivian appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether enforcing the EPA’s information request constituted an unreasonable search or seizure under the Fourth Amendment.
2. Whether compelling Tivian to compile and provide information constituted involuntary servitude prohibited by the Thirteenth Amendment.
3. Whether the information-demand provisions, or their application, violated the Fifth Amendment’s due process requirements, including claims of overly broad or standardless agency authority and unreasonable burden.

## Decision

- The First Circuit affirmed the district court’s order enforcing the EPA’s information request.
- The court held the request and enforcement order were governed by standards applicable to an administrative subpoena.
- Applying that standard, the court concluded the request was within EPA’s authority, sufficiently definite, and reasonably relevant to a lawful investigation.
- The court rejected Tivian’s Thirteenth Amendment argument, treating the obligation to provide information as a routine regulatory requirement rather than involuntary servitude.
- The court rejected Tivian’s due process objections, noting statutory limits (“reasonably require”) and the availability of judicial review in an enforcement action as protections against arbitrary demands.

## Legal Principles

- An agency demand for information, when judicially enforced, is evaluated under administrative subpoena reasonableness standards rather than criminal-search probable cause requirements.
- An administrative information demand is enforceable if (1) the inquiry is within the agency’s statutory authority, (2) the demand is not too indefinite, and (3) the information sought is reasonably relevant to a lawful inquiry.
- Routine regulatory reporting and record-production duties imposed on businesses generally do not constitute involuntary servitude under the Thirteenth Amendment.
- Due process is satisfied where statutes limit information demands to what the agency may reasonably require for statutory purposes and where courts can review and refuse enforcement of improper demands.

## Conclusion

The First Circuit upheld judicial enforcement of the EPA’s PCB-related information request to Tivian, concluding the demand met administrative subpoena standards and did not violate the Fourth, Fifth, or Thirteenth Amendments.


United States v. Tivian Lab’ys, Inc., 589 F.2d 49 (1st Cir. 1978)