ALLSTATES REFRACTORY CONTRACTORS, LLC v. JULIE A. SU, in her official capacity as Acting Secretary of Labor, U.S. Department of Labor; DOUGLAS L. PARKER, in his official capacity as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health; OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY & HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR; UNITED STATES ATTORNEY FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO - Articles

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ALLSTATES REFRACTORY CONTRACTORS, LLC v. JULIE A. SU, in her official capacity as Acting Secretary of Labor, U.S. Department of Labor; DOUGLAS L. PARKER, in his official capacity as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health; OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY & HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR; UNITED STATES ATTORNEY FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Aug 23, 2023

Court: 6th Circuit Court (Published Opinions)

Attorneys 1: ARGUED: Brett A. Shumate, JONES DAY, Washington, D.C., for Appellant.

Attorneys 2: ARGUED: Courtney L. Dixon, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Appellees.

Attorneys 3: ON BRIEF: Brett A. Shumate, John M. Gore, Anthony J. Dick, Brinton Lucas, JONES DAY, Washington, D.C., Christopher M. McLaughlin, JONES DAY, Cleveland, Ohio, J. Benjamin Aguiñaga, JONES DAY, Dallas, Texas, for Appellant.

Attorneys 4: ON BRIEF: Courtney L. Dixon, Alisa B. Klein, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Appellees.

Attorneys 5: ON BRIEF: Michael Pepson, AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY FOUNDATION, Arlington, Virginia, Timothy S. Bishop, Brett E. Legner, MAYER BROWN LLP, Chicago, Illinois, Jeffrey D. Jennings, LIBERTY JUSTICE CENTER, Chicago, Illinois, Sheng Li, NEW CIVIL LIBERTIES ALLIANCE, Washington, D.C., David C. Tryon, THE BUCKEYE INSTITUTE, Columbus, Ohio, Oliver J. Dunford, PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Luke A. Wake, PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION, Sacramento, California, Nicolas A. Sansone, Allison M. Zieve, PUBLIC CITIZEN LITIGATION GROUP, Washington, D.C., Pamela M. Newport, BRANSTETTER, STRANCH & JENNINGS, PLLC, Cincinnati, Ohio, Brianne J. Gorod, CONSTITUTIONAL ACCONTABILITY CENTER, Washington, D.C., Ben Seel, DEMOCRACY FORWARD FOUNDATION, Washington, D.C., Alex Hemmer, OFFICE OF THE ILLINOIS ATTORNEY GENERAL, Chicago, Illinois, Sean H. Donahue, DONAHUE & GOLDBERG, LLP, Washington, D.C., Ian Fein, NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL, San Francisco, California, Sanjay Narayan, SIERRA CLUB ENVIRONMENTAL LAW PROGRAM, Oakland, California, Craig Becker, AFL-CIO, Washington, D.C., Randy Rabinowitz, OSH LAW PROJECT, LLC, Washington, D.C., for Amici Curiae.

Judge(s): COOK, GRIFFIN, and NALBANDIAN, Circuit Judges

Court Appealed: Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio at Toledo

GRIFFIN, Circuit Judge. More than fifty years ago, Congress passed, and President Nixon signed into law, the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act, 29 U.S.C. § 651 et seq. Throughout the next half century, challenges to the constitutionality of the Act have been uniformly rejected. See Nat’l Mar. Safety Ass’n v. Occupational Safety & Health Admin., 649 F.3d 743 (D.C. Cir. 2011), cert. denied, 566 U.S. 936 (2012); Blocksom & Co. v. Marshall, 582 F.2d 1122 (7th Cir. 1978).

This case presents the same simple but poignant challenge: whether Congress’s delegation to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to set workplace-safety standards is constitutional. Plaintiff Allstates Refractory Contractors, a general contractor subject to OSHA’s oversight, challenges OSHA’s authority to set “reasonably necessary or appropriate” workplace-safety standards, 29 U.S.C. §§ 652(8), 655(b), as a violation of the nondelegation doctrine. The district court concluded that the delegation provided an “intelligible principle” and thus rejected Allstates’s challenge. We agree and now join our sister circuits in holding OSHA’s delegation to be constitutional.

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