Prime v. District of Columbia Department of Public Works

This is a case in which, in my judgment, the equities strongly favor the petitioner. As my colleagues in the majority acknowledge, “petitioner’s is not an unsympathetic case.” The substantially more difficult issue is whether the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) of the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) abused his discretion in denying the petitioner’s motion for a new hearing. Although, given our deferential standard of review, the question is a close one as to which reasonable people might (and do) differ, I would answer it in the affirmative.

I

I begin by setting forth what I take to be…