OSHA attorneys are reiterating their calls for a federal court to dismiss North Dakota’s suit challenging an agency investigation into alleged whistleblower retaliation by the state’s environment department, arguing that a federal court lacks jurisdiction and the state has no sovereign immunity from its enforcement action.
The Trump EPA’s plan to rewrite the Biden-era TSCA phaseout of chrysotile asbestos to limit workplace exposures and further delay litigation over the measure is raising questions over whether the agency will continue to enforce the existing rule as it expects it will take 30 months -- much of the administration’s remaining term -- to redo the rule.
A former Trump administration official is hoping that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit helps define the threshold “unreasonable risk” standard EPA must use when regulating chemicals to protect workers and others under TSCA given Congress’ and the agency’s failure so far to define the term.
A New Jersey steel fabricator is seeking summary judgment in its lawsuit claiming that Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) review of enforcement actions is unconstitutional, an early test for Trump officials on whether federal courts must review enforcement actions or the panel’s administrative law judges (ALJs).
A panel of 5th Circuit judges appears skeptical of EPA’s TSCA authority to regulate workplace exposures, as well as its threshold risk finding of methylene chloride, raising the prospect that any ruling in the potentially precedent-setting case could again undercut agency efforts to regulate chemicals as the circuit did in a 1991 asbestos case.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and industry groups are urging the 8th Circuit to again reject unions’ attempt to intervene in consolidated litigation over the agency’s silica dust rule, arguing the unions have provided no new evidence that the court should reverse its prior denial.
The Trump administration is continuing its push for a federal court to dismiss a West Virginia coal miner’s lawsuit challenging staffing cuts at a key federal health agency, raising standing and sovereign immunity defenses to argue there is nothing for the court to decide.
Labor unions and Democratic lawmakers are mounting an aggressive campaign to reinstate the work force slashed by the Trump administration at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), with lawmakers raising concerns in congressional hearings and unions suing to ensure “the whole of NIOSH is functional.”
Unions are urging a federal appeals court to reconsider its denial of their motion to intervene in litigation over the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA) silica dust rule, arguing the court acted prematurely and failed to consider key arguments supporting their participation.
North Dakota is urging a federal court to reject OSHA’s efforts to dismiss litigation challenging an agency investigation into alleged whistleblower retaliation by the state’s environment department, arguing OSHA’s position “ignores the finer points” of the state’s sovereign immunity claims.