Carpenter

The central question in this case is whether a Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) safety regulation can be challenged in district court under § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 794 , or whether the Hobbs Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 2321 , 2342, requires that such a challenge be brought only in the court of appeals. We hold that because the Hobbs Act grants exclusive jurisdiction for review of FHWA regulations to the court of appeals, the district court correctly transferred Carpenter’s action to this court. We then dismiss the petition as untimely because it was not filed within the 60-day time period allowed under the Hobbs Act.

I

BACKGROUND

Appellant Robert Carpenter is an interstate truck driver who has had monocular vision (vision in only one eye) since he was a child. Prior to 1991, he had been a licensed interstate track driver for 31 years. In 1991, the FHWA discovered that Carpenter is monocular and disqualified him from driving in interstate commerce because he did not satisfy the FHWA vision standard requiring a certain visual acuity in each eye. Carpenter filed an administrative appeal, but this appeal was denied by the FHWA in a Final Order confirming his…