Center for Auto Safety

Center for Auto Safety

1825 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite 330

Washington, DC 20009-5708
Phone: 202-328-7700



Established in 1968 by Ralph Nader and the Consumers Union,* the Center for Auto Safety was an outgrowth of the "Corvair" scandal. After the ordeal, "Nader realized that his singlehanded, sporadic monitoring of the auto industry would be ineffective." Thus, he and the union created the center as an independent (but affiliated) organization "to keep a sharp eye on the National Highway Safety Bureau" (Acton and LeMond, 1972, p. 69) by lobbying, researching, and litigating as necessary.

Today, the center is independent of both Nader and the Consumers Union,* but certain residues of that affiliation remain. Clarence Ditton, the director of the center, was once an employee of the Nader-founded Public Citizen.* Moreover, the center's original goals remain: to work for improved vehicle highway safety, reliability, and economy.

Although these basic tenets reflect its founders' original purposes, the center itself has grown tremendously. Operating under a $600,000 budget derived from its more than 10,000 members, foundations, and private contributions, along with the sale of its published research, the center employs 14 individuals. Although litigation accounts for only 30 percent of its overall activities, it employs three staff attorneys.

In recent years the center, represented by the Public Citizen Litigation Group,* has been involved in a number of suits, challenging decisions of the Secretary of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). In Center for Auto Safety v. NHTSA (1986), for example, it challenged an administrative rule involving fuel economy. In another, Center for Auto Safety v. Lewis (1982), it asked a federal court to examine the Secretary of Transportation's settlement "of a safety investigation concerning 23 million Ford vehicles." More recently, in Center for Auto Safety v. Department of Transportation (1988), the Supreme Court declined to review the Secretary of Transportation's refusal to reopen an investigation into alleged safety defects in Ford automobiles built between 1966 and 1979, holding that the agency's discretion was not subject to "meaningful review."

In addition to its direct sponsorship activity, the center participates as an amicus curiae. In Motor Vehicle Manufacturers' Association v. State Farm Mutual (1983) its third-party brief questioned the NHTSA's recission of a requirement that new cars contain "passive restraints."

Whether acting as a direct sponsor or as an amicus curiae, the center often co-operates with like-minded organizations. In the 1986 NHTSA case, it worked with the Environmental Policy Institute, Public Citizen,* and the Union of Concerned Scientists. Its amicus curiae brief in Motor Vehicle Manufacturer's Association was filed with Public Citizen* and Physicians for Automotive Safety.