The Supreme Court’s decision faulting the Commerce Department for adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census based on a “contrived” post hoc pretext could bolster lawsuits targeting the Trump OSHA’s rule rollbacks, such as the pending case over its recordkeeping rule, where challengers say officials ignored or misrepresented the record.
The Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote has preserved the long-standing doctrine that mandates judicial deference to OSHA and other agencies’ “reasonable” readings of ambiguities in their rules, but the majority’s emphasis on the doctrine’s limits prompted conservative justices to warn the test has been so weakened it may as well be “zombified."
The Supreme Court’s conservative wing is signaling a desire to radically strengthen its doctrine that bars Congress from giving agencies too much rulemaking discretion which in turn could impose major new limits on OSHA’s authority, though the justices in a new ruling held off on setting a new standard because of the unique nature of the decision.
Environmentalists are asking an appellate court in Washington, DC, to allow them to intervene in industry’s challenge to EPA’s ban on consumer uses of paint-stripping products containing methylene chloride (MC), a move that may ultimately lead the case to be consolidated with environmentalists’ separate suit in an appellate court in New York.
Democratic state attorneys general (AG) and other groups are urging a federal court to vacate the Trump administration’s rule rolling back OSHA’s electronic reporting and record-keeping requirements, arguing the rollback is not justified, is “plagued” by errors and otherwise violates administrative law.
Labor unions and other groups challenging the Trump EPA’s framework rule on how the agency evaluates existing chemicals under the revised toxics law say that ongoing risks from legacy and other uses of substances currently being assessed show that they have standing to challenge the rule’s provision allowing the agency to preclude such uses from assessments.
A Texas refiner is petitioning a federal appellate court to review a controversial ruling from OSHA’s review panel that industry attorneys say “dramatically” expands the agency’s process safety management (PSM) rule's applicability to boilers and other “interconnected” units.
A chemical industry trade association is suing EPA over its first-time Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) ban on consumer uses of paint-strippers containing methylene chloride, charging the measure goes too far by unintentionally limiting access to some commercial uses even though it does not intend to.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit will hear oral argument Aug. 5 in public interest groups’ challenge to the constitutionality of the Congressional Review Act (CRA), teeing up a decision that could limit or even block lawmakers’ ability under the 1996 law to revoke rulemakings from OSHA and other agencies.
Appellate judges appear to agree with EPA lawyers that labor and other groups generally lack standing to challenge the agency's framework rule for evaluating risks of existing chemicals under the revised toxics law, but they left the door open to sue over officials' decision to preclude legacy uses from the scope of any evaluation.