Big win for regulators at Supreme Court

[Cebu_4_2]

Big win for regulators at Supreme Court

By Lydia Wheeler - 03/09/15 11:38 AM EDT

Regulators won a big victory at the Supreme Court on Monday as the justices endorsed expansive powers for changing the interpretation of federal rules.

The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that federal agencies do not have to follow procedures for notifying the public and collecting comment when changing the interpretations of rules, effectively removing steps from the process that can take months and sometimes years to complete.

The case, Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Association, stemmed from a longstanding Labor Department rule that determines which employees are eligible to earn overtime and minimum wage.

The Mortgage Bankers Association sued after the Labor Department changed its interpretation of the the rule to include mortgage loan officers. The bankers said Labor violated the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) by failing to provide time for provide public notice and time for comment.

But the high court unanimously rejected that argument in an opinion wrote by Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

“Because an agency is not required to use notice-and-comment procedures to issue an initial interpretive rule, it is also not required to use those procedures when it amends or repeals that interpretive rule,” Sotomayor wrote.

The decision contradicts the D.C. Circuit Court’s Paralyzed Veterans doctrine, which holds that an agency must use the APA’s notice-and-comment procedures when it wishes to issue a new interpretation of a regulation that deviates significantly from one previously adopted.

Justice Samuel Alito said the Paralyzed Doctrine likely stemmed from fear that federal agencies were becoming too powerful and concerns that Congress was affording them too much lawmaking authority

“I do not dismiss these concerns, but the Paralyzed Doctrine is not a viable cure for these problems,” he said.

John Meyers, an attorney with Barnes & Thornburg, said the ruling gives the Labor Department, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Labor Relations Board a wide berth when it comes to promulgating rules outside of the normal agency rulemaking process, which requires notice, time for rebuttal and comment considerations from constituent groups.

“We can expect the current administration to use this ruling to back up its authority to pass new or change existing precedents,” he said.

[expat4ever]

So I guess the EPA can now ban the use of toilet paper so as to save the trees. Sorry Ponce. All that TP is now worthless. :).

[midnight rambler]

Now the BATFags can get back to banning ammo without interruption by the rubes.

[BarnkleBob]

I have recently spent a large amount of time reading & researching various SCOTUS opinions... a theme is developing, namely the court is refusing to act upon political questions and opinions that are political by their very nature... IOW SCOTUS is refusing to perform the functions of law making that inherently belong to the realm of Congress.... In the above case, SCOTUS is providing the Agencies with all of their unlimited powers of rule making and procedures.... Rule making & procedures that ONLY Congress can limit the exercise thereof! It is Congressional responsibility to set directives, policy & procedures to the Agencies under their authority.... which axiomatically is not a responsibility of the judiciary.

IMO SCOTUS opined correctly....

[Cebu_4_2]

I have recently spent a large amount of time reading & researching various SCOTUS opinions... a theme is developing, namely the court is refusing to act upon political questions and opinions that are political by their very nature... IOW SCOTUS is refusing to perform the functions of law making that inherently belong to the realm of Congress.... In the above case, SCOTUS is providing the Agencies with all of their unlimited powers of rule making and procedures.... Rule making & procedures that ONLY Congress can limit the exercise thereof! It is Congressional responsibility to set directives, policy & procedures to the Agencies under their authority.... which axiomatically is not a responsibility of the judiciary.

IMO SCOTUS opined correctly....

It's blurry in here but I think I read this as a good thing as long as Congress acts accordingly.

[Ponce]

So I guess the EPA can now ban the use of toilet paper so as to save the trees. Sorry Ponce. All that TP is now worthless. :).

That's what is so good about river rocks, you can use them to wipe your ass with or to crack someone skull with and take their weapon......laws, rules and regulations are only good if someone obeys them.

V

[BarnkleBob]

It's blurry in here but I think I read this as a good thing as long as Congress acts accordingly.

SCOTUS & the federal judiciary have opined & ruled numerous times that "Congress controls, what Congress creates!" This is a doctrine.

Congress has created a "monster mash" of various agencies, so many that not even Congress can control its creations any longer due to the sheer number of these agencies & the sub-divisions that spawn out of these agencies... It is not the responsibility of the Judiciary to police or create policies for the monsters that Congress created in its zeal to control all things at all times by usurping commercial & political powers that inherently belong to the realm & management of the several states....

The failure of congress to effectively create operational policy & procedures will lead to this institution losing a great volume of its usurped political & commercial powers... powers that will inevitably be returned back to the states and local governance by default....

Its rather absurd that Congress in Washington D.C. really believes that say a labor policy that may operate efficiently in Bangor Maine will operate just as efficiently in Houston Texas or Miami Florida.... Each & every socio-economic, socio-political jurisdiction is unique, and rarely possesses anything in common with such varied locations and multi-cultures... Texas with Mexican/Central American Immigrants & Florida with Mexican, Central American & Carribean Immigrants have little in common with Bangor Maine or Salt Lake City Utah.

IMO sooner or later Congress will be forced to delegate the usurped powers back to the several states... and the ruling in the aforementioned case is the ongoing realization that Congress has created a domestic system that they are incapable of properly controlling or managing...

My $.02

[Cebu_4_2]

We can accept this.

[midnight rambler]

It's blurry in here but I think I read this as a good thing as long as Congress acts accordingly.

Name one thing the Congresscritters have done in your best interests lately.

[BarnkleBob]

Remember "Congress controls what Congress creates" when you read this:

6.5 Million Social Security Numbers Linked To Those 112 Or Older (And Likely Dead)

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/03/10/392112708/6-5-million-social-security-numbers-linked-to-those-112-or-older

This outrageous.... OR more than likely an inside theft job... but no matter, it just goes to prove that Congress as a body, are incompetent to oversee and manage most federal agencies & programs....