Gulf Oil Corporation v. United States Department of Energy

WALD, Circuit Judge:

This case raises a difficult question in a troubling and unusual context: whether a district court may intervene in an ongoing administrative adjudicatory proceeding to expand discovery into an alleged pattern of wrongdoing by agency officials that could affect the outcome of the proceeding. The alleged wrongdoing consisted of the destruction of documents of arguable relevance to the administrative proceeding, and *298prohibited ex parte communications between the hearing officer and enforcement personnel. Because our decision to vacate the district court’s order rests on a…