Litigation

Federal appellate judges are ordering the Mining Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and an employer to explain why their bid to overturn an administrative law judge’s (ALJ) decision blocking an enforcement settlement should not be dismissed, while signaling that the ALJ body may be allowed to defend its ruling directly if the case proceeds.

EPA is denying a petition from GOP states and chemical industry groups seeking reconsideration of its final risk management program (RMP) rule, a move that will restart paused litigation over the rule though the incoming Trump administration is expected to ask the court to remand the measure to revise it along the lines of its prior rulemaking.

An agriculture firm is arguing that OSHA’s long-standing guidance on how it divides enforcement authority over “rolling stock” with the Department of Transportation is too “vague” to support a 2021 citation that claims the employer “willfully” failed to comply with fall safety standards during railcar loading operations.

EPA is defending the legality of its landmark rule banning many uses of the solvent methylene chloride and imposing strict worker-protection mandates on those that continue, saying the policy is “reasonable” and grounded in statutory language -- even as the incoming Trump administration could drop those positions next month.

OSHA has reached a settlement with Amazon over working conditions at its warehouses nationwide, requiring ergonomics improvements across the e-commerce giant’s operations following a years-long enforcement push by the agency -- and just days after Senate Democrats accused the company of unlawfully concealing injuries at the facilities.

OSHA is again urging a federal court to permanently dismiss for lack of standing a California road authority’s challenge to a Trump-era memo easing implementation of federal scaffolding safety mandates, arguing that the plaintiff’s amended complaint still fails to establish that it has standing to bring its suit.

OSHA and the steel company claiming that Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) review of enforcement actions is unconstitutional have agreed to push the agency’s deadline to answer the novel litigation until February, leaving it to the incoming Trump administration to decide how -- or whether -- the government will contest those arguments.

A three-judge appellate panel is evaluating whether EPA correctly determined that it has authority to regulate rail cars as a “stationary source” under its Risk Management Program (RMP) and emergency planning rules for facility safety, questioning how it should review the agency’s interpretation since the high court eliminated Chevron deference.

Two employer attorneys say a New Jersey steel company’s bid to declare the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) unconstitutional poses legal questions that will likely require resolution by the Supreme Court -- though possibly only after similar cases make their way through multiple lower courts.

A California roads authority is claiming that a Trump-era OSHA memo easing implementation of its scaffolding safety rule raised costs and introduced regulatory uncertainty for the state’s construction projects even though it is not directly bound by the policy, after the Biden administration argued that it lacks standing to challenge the letter in court.