CARL E. STEWART, Chief Judge:
The Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas brought suit against the United States and various federal agencies alleging inter alia violations of the Administrative Procedures Act and federal common law. The district court granted the Government's motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Because we hold that the Tribe has failed to allege "agency action" sufficient to meet the standards required for waiver of the Government's sovereign immunity, we AFFIRM.
The Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas ("Tribe") is a federally-recognized Indian tribe. The Tribe asserts that it holds unextinguished aboriginal title
The Tribe filed this action against the United States and various agencies (collectively "the Government") claiming that the Government breached its fiduciary duty under federal law to protect the land and natural resources subject to the aboriginal title of the Tribe. The Tribe asserted that there was jurisdiction for the suit based on 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 (federal question), 1362 (action by Indian tribe)
The Tribe sought equitable relief, including declarations that the Government's actions in the past violated federal common law and the Nonintercourse Act and that in the future the Government must consider and accommodate the Tribe's aboriginal title; a permanent injunction; accounting of the revenues collected as a result of the Government's actions; and, if necessary, the appointment of a special master to make decisions regarding mineral rights on these lands. The Tribe did not seek monetary relief or the conveyance of the land at issue. Rather, the Tribe sought only to prevent the Government from continuing to breach its fiduciary duties in recent and pending discretionary administrative decisions with respect to federal land in the Tribe's territory. The Government filed a motion to dismiss the Tribe's lawsuit for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, or in the alternative, for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.
The district court referred the matter to the magistrate judge ("MJ"). The MJ issued a report and recommendation stating that the district court should grant the Government's motion to dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction because the Tribe made a programmatic challenge to the federal agencies' actions, and therefore, the actions were not reviewable under § 702. The MJ also recommended that the Tribe could not establish a breach of fiduciary duty based on the Nonintercourse Act, and that only the Government's wrongful, total extinguishment of aboriginal title, is actionable. The district court adopted the MJ's report and recommendation over the Tribe's objections.
We review a district court's grant of a motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) de novo. Willoughby v. U.S. ex rel. U.S. Dep't of the Army, 730 F.3d 476, 479 (5th Cir.2013), cert. denied, ___ U.S., ___, 134 S.Ct. 1307, 188 L.Ed.2d 303 (2014). The Tribe, as the party asserting federal subject-matter jurisdiction, has the burden of proving that this requirement has been met. Id. When facing a challenge to subject-matter jurisdiction and other challenges on the merits, we must consider first the Rule 12(b)(1) jurisdictional challenge prior to addressing the merits of the claim. See id.
The Tribe seeks judicial review of the actions of various federal agencies pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331 and § 1346. In order to maintain this action, there must be a waiver of sovereign immunity. See Koehler, 153 F.3d at 265. The only applicable waiver is from the APA, 5 U.S.C. § 702; therefore, the Tribe must prove that the requirements of § 702 have been met. See Willoughby, 730 F.3d at 479. Section 702 of the APA "waives sovereign immunity for actions against federal government agencies, seeking nonmonetary relief, if the agency conduct is otherwise subject to judicial review." Sheehan v. Army & Air Force Exch. Serv., 619 F.2d 1132, 1139 (5th Cir.1980), rev'd on other grounds, 456 U.S. 728, 102 S.Ct. 2118, 72 L.Ed.2d 520 (1982); see also Armendariz-Mata v. U.S. Dep't of Justice, 82 F.3d 679, 682 (5th Cir.1996) ("Congress intended to broaden the avenues for judicial review of agency action by eliminating the defense of sovereign immunity in cases covered by § 702...." (citation omitted)).
In Sheehan, we agreed with the Third Circuit that Congress intended to waive immunity for non-statutory causes of action against federal agencies arising under 28 U.S.C. § 1331. Sheehan, 619 F.2d at 1139 ("We too ... hold that Congress did intend to waive the defense of sovereign immunity for nonstatutory review under section 1331"). Although Sheehan was ultimately reversed by the Supreme Court on other grounds, we continue to agree with this specific holding. See Rothe Dev. Corp. v. U.S. Dep't of Defense, 194 F.3d 622, 624 n. 2 (5th Cir.1999) (citing Sheehan as support for the fact that § 702 is a waiver of sovereign immunity for actions against federal government agencies, if the agency is otherwise subject to judicial review). Section 702's legislative history as illuminated by the Third Circuit in Jaffee v. United States, 592 F.2d 712, 718-19 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 441 U.S. 961, 99 S.Ct. 2406,
Section 702 contains two separate requirements for establishing a waiver of sovereign immunity. See Lujan v. Nat'l Wildlife Fed'n, 497 U.S. 871, 882, 110 S.Ct. 3177, 111 L.Ed.2d 695 (1990). First, the plaintiff must identify some "agency action" affecting him in a specific way, which is the basis of his entitlement for judicial review. Id, This "agency action" for the purposes of § 702 is set forth by 5 U.S.C. § 551(13) and is defined as "the whole or part of an agency rule, order, license, sanction, relief, or the equivalent or denial thereof, or failure to act." 5 U.S.C. § 551(13). Second, the plaintiff must show that he has "suffered legal wrong because of the challenged agency action, or is adversely affected or aggrieved by that action within the meaning of a relevant statute." Lujan, 497 U.S. at 883, 110 S.Ct. 3177 (internal quotation marks omitted). These requirements apply to any waiver of sovereign immunity pursuant to § 702.
Section 702 also waives immunity for two distinct types of claims. It waives immunity for claims where a "person suffer[s] legal wrong because of agency action." 5 U.S.C. § 702. This type of waiver applies when judicial review is sought pursuant only to the general provisions of the APA. There must be "final agency action" in order for a court to conclude that there was a waiver of sovereign immunity pursuant to the first type of waiver in § 702. Lujan, 497 U.S. at 882, 110 S.Ct. 3177 ("When, as here, review is sought not pursuant to specific authorization in the substantive statute, but only under the general review provisions of the APA, the `agency action' in question must be `final agency action.'"). Both Lujan and our most applicable case, Sierra Club, applied specifically to situations where review was sought pursuant only to the general provisions of the APA. See id.; Sierra Club v. Peterson, 228 F.3d 559, 565 (5th Cir.2000) (en banc).
Section 702 also waives immunity for claims where a person is "adversely affected or aggrieved by agency action within the meaning of a relevant statute." 5 U.S.C. § 702. This type of waiver applies when judicial review is sought pursuant to a statutory or non-statutory cause of action that arises completely apart from the general provisions of the APA. See Sheehan, 619 F.2d at 1139; Trudeau, 456 F.3d at 187. There is no requirement of "finality" for this type of waiver to apply. See Trudeau, 456 F.3d at 187. The requirement of "finality" comes from § 704 and has been read into § 702 in cases where review is sought pursuant only to the general provisions of the APA. See Sierra Club, 228 F.3d at 565; Amer. Airlines, Inc. v. Herman, 176 F.3d 283, 287 (5th Cir.1999). Instead, for this type of waiver there only needs to be "agency action" as set forth by 5 U.S.C. 551(13). See Lujan, 497 U.S. at 882, 110 S.Ct. 3177.
This case is unique because the Tribe is asserting two separate types of claims — each falling under the different parts of § 702 described above. First, it is asserting a general challenge to the various agencies' actions pursuant to the APA (hereinafter "APA claims"). These claims are brought solely pursuant to the general provisions of the APA and specifically section 706. Second, the Tribe is asserting a claim for breach of fiduciary duty based on both federal common law and the Nonintercourse
The Supreme Court's decision in Lujan "announced a prohibition on programmatic challenges" — challenges that seek "wholesale improvement" of an agency's programs by court decree, rather than through Congress or the agency itself where such changes are normally made. Sierra Club, 228 F.3d at 566 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). We agree with the district court that the Tribe's lawsuit is an impermissible programmatic challenge, and therefore, we lack jurisdiction over these claims. See Lujan, 497 U.S. at 890, 110 S.Ct. 3177 (holding that the petitioners' challenge to the entirety of the "land withdrawal review program" is "not [a challenge to] an `agency action' within the meaning of § 702, much less a `final agency action' within the meaning of § 704"). The Tribe's complaint fails to point to any "identifiable action or event." See id. at 899, 110 S.Ct. 3177. Instead, the complaint brings a challenge to the federal management of the natural resources on the land in question. The complaint contends only that all of the leases, permits, and sales administered by multiple federal agencies, including any ongoing action by these agencies that encroach on the Tribe's aboriginal title, are unlawful. These are allegations of past, ongoing, and future harms, seeking "wholesale improvement" and cover actions that have yet to occur. See id. at 891, 110 S.Ct. 3177. Such allegations do not challenge specific "agency action." See id.
The Tribe's complaint is structured as a blanket challenge to all of the Government's actions with respect to all permits and leases granted for natural resource extraction on a significantly large amount of land covering several national parks in Texas. The fact that the Tribe is not seeking wholesale reform of every single mineral permit, lease, or sale granted by these agencies but only those related to
The Tribe argues that the complaint identifies a specific number of these permits and leases that have been issued, but this alone cannot save these claims. As the Tribe concedes, these numbers do not specifically identify the agency action nor is the Tribe contesting these specific actions.
The Tribe also argues that it brings its APA claims pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 706; however, this argument is undeveloped and unavailing. The Tribe asserts that § 706 provides that a reviewing court shall "hold unlawful and set aside agency action" that is "not in accordance with law." 5 U.S.C. § 706(2). However, the Tribe fails to explain how this makes the action "final" for purposes of the sovereign immunity waiver in § 702, and finality is necessary for this type of waiver to apply. See Sierra Club, 228 F.3d at 565. For example, the Tribe does not argue that this is a challenge to the agencies' failure to act, which in certain circumstances may be sufficiently final to make review appropriate. See id. at 568. Under these circumstances, the Tribe's argument is meritless.
The Tribe argues that at the very least its breach of fiduciary duty claim is sustainable because the district court erred in applying our precedent on the elements of the Nonintercourse Act.
For the aforementioned reasons only, we AFFIRM the district court's dismissal of this suit for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. The Tribe has failed to allege "agency action" sufficient to meet the requirements of the sovereign immunity waiver in § 702, which is necessary to maintain its claims against the federal government and its agencies.
5 U.S.C. § 702.