Martha Nathan v. William French Smith, U.S. Attorney General. Martha Nathan v. William French Smith, U.S. Attorney General

This is a case over which we have no jurisdiction: the Ethics in Government Act creates no private right of action to compel the Attorney General to conduct a preliminary investigation. We may not, therefore, reach the merits and inquire, as Judge Davis does, whether appellees supplied the Attorney General with information sufficiently specific to trigger a duty on his part to initiate a preliminary investigation.

Though he concedes that there are “substantial questions” about plaintiffs’ standing to sue under the Act and about the judicial reviewability of the Attorney General’s actions and…