Litigation

An employer seeking to overturn OSHA’s power to craft “necessary or appropriate” safety standards is asking the Supreme Court to take up its case, renewing its claims that the OSH Act’s language is too vague to survive under the “nondelegation” doctrine but adding for the first time that even a clear grant of such “major” authority would be unconstitutional.

EPA is telling a federal district court that its plan to defer to the National Academy of Sciences’ (NAS)’ peer review of a draft risk assessment of formaldehyde in its TSCA evaluation that could support new workplace limits on the chemical does not help industry’s suit over the NAS process, saying trade groups still have shown no harm to their members.

As the Supreme Court moves to require clearer congressional authorization for OSHA and other agencies to regulate, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers is considering options for expanding Congress’ oversight of administrative rulemakings, including creating a new Congressional Office of Regulatory Review.

The Supreme Court’s upcoming decision on the fate of OSHA and other agencies’ deference under the Chevron doctrine is almost certain to drive reams of new litigation and result in conflicting circuit decisions, legal observers say, given widespread expectations the justices will overturn or significantly cabin the doctrine.

At least four conservative justices on the Supreme Court appear open -- if not eager -- to overturn the 40-year-old principle of Chevron deference, though their success hinges on whether they can convince at least one more of their colleagues to join them in striking down the doctrine that requires courts to defer to OSHA and other agencies’ reasonable interpretations of vague statutory text.

Attorneys and former officials say the Senate’s failure to confirm a second member to the Occupational Safety and Health Association Review Commission (OSHRC) threatens short- and long-term complications for OSHA enforcement, including a backlog of cases and prolonged uncertainty on whether employers will be penalized for failing to abate alleged violations.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit will not revisit its ruling upholding as constitutional the OSH Act provisions granting OSHA’s standard-setting authority, after the judges rejected claims by a contracting company that the decision was incorrect as a matter of law and created a circuit split on when the agency must regulate to address workplace dangers.

The court hearing South Carolina's challenge to the OSHA mandate for states to match inflation adjustments in federal OSH Act penalties is staying the case pending a Supreme Court decision on the Administrative Procedure Act's (APA) statute of limitations, rejecting arguments from the agency that legal issues in the two are largely unrelated.

OSHA has reached a settlement with the National Chimney Sweep Guild (NCSG) to resolve a long-stalled challenge to the agency’s 2016 rulemaking that overhauled fall-protection standards to limit workers' slips, trips and falls, setting alternative compliance approaches and limited waivers for the sector.

South Carolina is doubling down on its arguments that a pending Supreme Court case over the Administrative Procedure Act's (APA) statute of limitations could ease its challenge to OSHA's mandate for states to match annual increases to federal OSH Act penalties.