Fifth Circuit Discusses Split Re Is Whether 7 U.S.C. § 6912(e) Requires the Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies as a Prerequisite to Federal SMJ

Per Dawson Farms, LLC v. Farm Service Agency, 504 F.3d 592, (5th Cir. Oct. 16, 2007)

The Eighth and Ninth Circuits have held that the 7 U.S.C. § 6912(e) exhaustion requirement is jurisprudential rather than jurisdictional in its effect. The Second Circuit's contrary view is that § 6912(e) is a prerequisite to a district court's subject matter jurisdiction in a person's suit against the Secretary, the USDA, or any of its agencies, officers or employees.

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[W]e now join the Eighth and Ninth Circuits in holding that § 6912(e) analogously codifies the jurisprudential doctrine of exhaustion and is not jurisdictional.