Notice and Comment

When we first covered the section on challenges to sufficiency of notice in 'notice and comment' rule making in Administrative Law, this exchange from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (by Douglas Adams) popped into my head.

"But Mr. Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months."

"Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything."

"But the plans were on display ..."

"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."

"That's the display department."

"With a flashlight."

"Ah, well the lights had probably gone."

"So had the stairs."

"But look, you found the notice didn't you?"

"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'."

-- Arthur Dent on plans for demolition of his house


Not quite an "obscure misplaced footnote" (see MCI v. FCC 57 F.3d 1136 D.C. Cir. 1995), but I'd say Arthur had a case. Too bad the Earth was blown up shortly thereafter.