April 27, 2023, 5:24 AM

Legality of OSHA Safety Rules Challenged in Federal Appeals Case

Bruce Rolfsen
Reporter

-- Congress delegated OSHA too much power, employer says
-- Agency defends safety rules as needed, feasible
-- A federal court hearing Thursday could determine whether hundreds of OSHA workplace safety requirements are illegal.

At issue during oral arguments at the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is whether when Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, it delegated too much authority to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to decide which safety dangers needed to be regulated and what the protections should be. ... If judges with the Sixth Circuit rule against OSHA, the decision could strike down safety regulations covering hazards from falls to electrocution dating back 50 years.

Allstates Refractory Contractors LLC of Waterville, Ohio, wants the court to overturn the rules. ... “When it comes to workplace-safety standards, the only purported limit on that broad rulemaking authority in the Occupational Safety and Health Act is that these rules must be ‘reasonably necessary or appropriate to provide safe or healthful employment and places of employment,’” attorneys for Allstates from the firm Jones Day wrote in a brief to the court. ... “That is no limit at all. Congress offered no guidance on what makes a rule ‘reasonably necessary or appropriate.’ Instead, it left that weighty policy question entirely to the agency.”

Allstates didn’t challenge OSHA health rules, since the US Supreme Court in earlier decisions had approved, within limits, OSHA’s power to create health standards.

Jones Day partner Brett Shumate, who served as a Trump administration politically appointed deputy assistant attorney general, is expected to present Allstates’ case. Shumate didn’t respond to a request to discuss the case.

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