Industrial Union Department, Afl-Cio v. James D. Hodgson, Secretary, Department of Labor, Environmentaldefense Fund, Inc., Intervenor

McGOWAN, Circuit Judge:

This direct review proceeding presents a classic case of what Judge Friendly has aptly termed “a new form of uneasy partnership” between agency and court that results whenever Congress delegates decision making of a legislative character to the one, subject to review by the other. Associated Industries v. United States Dept. of Labor, 487 F.2d 342, 354 (2nd Cir. 1973). The angularity of this relationship is only sharpened when, as here, Congress — with no apparent awareness of anomaly — has explicitly combined an informal agency procedure with a standard of review…