A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw |
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Two produce industry trade groups in Texas have filed a lawsuit claiming the OSHA's legal authority to adopt rules regulating workplace safety is unconstitutional. Here’s what to know: |
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The lawsuit filed in Amarillo, Texas, federal court alleges that Congress improperly handed over its legislative powers to OSHA, which is part of the Department of Labor, when it created the agency over 50 years ago and allowed it to adopt any standards it deems "reasonably necessary and appropriate."
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Congress never defined those terms, the trade groups said in their lawsuit, giving OSHA too much latitude to adopt thousands of pages of burdensome and often unnecessary regulations.
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Read the complaint here and the motion for summary judgment here.
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OSHA has faced similar claims at least once before, in a 2021 lawsuit by an industrial furnace servicing company. The 6th Circuit in 2023 affirmed a judge's dismissal of that case, agreeing with OSHA that Congress had properly limited its powers by requiring the agency to identify significant risks and only adopt standards that are necessary to mitigate them. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal.
- Daniel Wiessner has more on the latest court challenge to a federal agency's long-held enforcement powers.
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The 9th Circuit will weigh whether Mark Zuckerberg can avoid being deposed in a Meta privacy class action. Meta is invoking a controversial principle known as the apex doctrine to claim Zuckerberg should be spared the hot seat, arguing that he has no "unique" knowledge of the case, and plaintiffs' lawyers could get the same information from lower-level Meta employees. Jenna Greene has more here.
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The 9th Circuit will also weigh the Trump administration’s appeal of a preliminary injunction barring it from withholding federal funding from more than a dozen “sanctuary jurisdictions” that have declined to cooperate with the president's hardline immigration crackdown. Read the injunction.
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U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco will hold a hearing as he weighs California's bid for a preliminary injunction ending the Trump administration's federalization of hundreds of California National Guard troops, which has been extended multiple times since the troops were first deployed earlier this year. Currently, the DOJ has said it expects the troops to remain under federalization until at least February.
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U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Rhode Island will hold a hearing in a lawsuit by a group of Democratic-led states seeking to block the Trump administration from placing new restrictions on more than $3 billion in grant funding used to provide permanent housing and other services to homeless people. Read the complaint.
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U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss in D.C. will hold a motion hearing in a lawsuit brought by journalist Jimmy Tobias against the DOJ for refusing to expedite a FOIA for Jeffrey Epstein’s “client list” that Attorney General Pam Bondi said was on her desk in a February appearance on Fox News. Read the complaint.
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Meta Platforms will urge the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to hold that the state's AG cannot pursue a lawsuit alleging the social media company purposely deployed Instagram features to addict young users and deceived the public about the dangers it posed to the mental health of teenagers.
- Luigi Mangione will be back in New York state court for a pre-trial conference in the case alleging he murdered UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes. |
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The prosecution of prominent Washington lawyer Tom Goldstein has veered into an unusual appellate showdown involving pricey D.C. real estate, the constitutional right to counsel and a high-powered litigation funding firm that is set to be a witness in the case. Read more in this week's Billable Hours.
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Big law firms trying to navigate the artificial intelligence boom and capitalize on the technology are tapping new executives to shape their AI strategy. Find out more here.
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Moves: The former head of the SEC’s Los Angeles trial unit, Douglas Miller, moved to Boies Schiller … Paul Weiss added two infrastructure and project finance partners. Kelann Brook Stirling will be head of project finance and development and joins from Kirkland while Jamie Franklin joins from White & Case … Kirkland added litigation partners Meghan Kelly and Bill Oxley from Orrick, where they co-led the complex litigation and dispute resolution practice … Adam Vaccaro, the director of the Office of Investment Security at the U.S. Department of Commerce, moved to DLA Piper’s national security and global trade practice … Christopher Jaarda, a former adviser to U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, joined Holland & Knight’s public policy practice. The firm also added former Texas A&M GC Ray Bonilla to its education practice.
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