The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has formally consolidated the multiple legal challenges to OSHA's silica rule into a single docket, clearing the way for the litigation to begin, though the court, for now, delayed setting a briefing schedule on the merits.
Instead, in its April 28 order in North America's Building Trades Unions, v. OSHA, the court set May 31 deadlines for the petitioners to file any procedural motions, statements of issues and other documents, while setting a June 13 deadline for any dispositive motions. The court set identical deadlines for the respondents.
But the court ordered that “briefing in this case be deferred pending further order.”
The court's order follows an April 12 decision by the federal Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation, which consolidated a host of industry and labor group challenges to the rule in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The decision marks a loss for industry groups that had petitioned other appellate courts to eventually hear the case.
For example, the National Association of Home Builders was slated to join a challenge to the rule in the 5th Circuit, which had previously closely scrutinized OSHA rules, even those that had been upheld, an industry source says.
Instead, the judicial panel consolidated challenges behind a petition filed by North America's Building Trades Unions, an entity within the AFL-CIO, which has strongly backed the rule and lobbied the administration to quickly issue it.
Nevertheless, the court action could clear the way for expected industry petitions to stay the rule pending judicial review.