Ray Strickland and Sam Lorimer v. Hon. Rogers C. B. Morton

Appellants seek to reverse a decision of the Secretary of the Interior denying their separate applications for homestead entry. Under procedures specified in the Classification and Multiple Use Act of 1964, 43 U.S.C. §§ 1411-18 , Federal public lands are to be classified by the Secretary of the Interior either as being “suitable for disposal,” or alternatively, as being of such value “as to make them more suitable for retention in Federal ownership” and managed for public purposes. A classification decision that lands are not suitable for disposal has the effect of segregating from homestead entry the lands so classified. The lands which appellants sought to homestead being classified (prior to appellants’ applications) as lands “more suitable for retention,” the Secretary denied appellants’ applications for homestead entry.

Appellants, invoking the jurisdictional provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act, sought judicial review of the Secretary’s denial of their applications in Federal District Court. The district court dismissed appellants’ action on the authority of this circuit’s decision in Mol-lohan v. Gray, 413 F.2d 349 (9th Cir. 1969), which held that agency…