OSHA is the agency responsible for setting and enforcing workplace standards. An Ohio-based construction contractor backed by Republican-led states and anti-regulatory interests had argued that Congress unconstitutionally delegated its legislative powers to the executive branch when it gave the agency such broad authority.
The court issued a brief order declining to take up the contractor’s appeal after a lower court rejected the challenge.
Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch publicly indicated they would’ve taken up the case, which would have required at least four votes.
While Gorsuch did not provide an explanation, Thomas argued the OSHA challenge presented an “excellent vehicle” to tackle the constitutional issue.
“The question whether the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s broad authority is consistent with our constitutional structure is undeniably important,” Thomas wrote.
Thomas also noted that in recent years, other conservatives on the Supreme Court — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh — have expressed an interest in “reconsidering this Court’s approach” to Congress’s delegations of power to federal agencies.
The justice contended that the Labor Department agency’s power extends to “virtually every business in the United States,” quoting a years-old dissent by Kavanaugh that cited the scope of its authority from lawnmower design to trainer and whale interactions at Sea World.
The Supreme Court took a hack saw to the “administrative state” this term and has delivered decisive victories for conservative and anti-regulatory interests in recent years. This case could have taken another bite out of the shrinking regime.
The Hill’s Zach Schonfeld and Ella Lee have more here.
