Ellwood City Blues
Despite being judicial review of agency action, principles of administrative law do not always apply to customs law. That is because most decisions by Customs and Border Protection affecting the importation of merchandise are subject to administrative review in the protest process and then judicial review on a de novo standard. That means the judge will make a decision based on the evidence presented to the court rather than the administrative record on which the agency based its decision. For comparison, in a trade case, the court will uphold a Commerce Department dumping margin calculation as long as the decision is based on substantial evidence in the record and is otherwise in accordance with law. That means the agency can prevail even if the court would have reached a contrary conclusion. That is the opposite of, for example, a tariff classification case in which the court is required to reach the correct result based on the evidence before it with little regard for Customs'