Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF) filed an amicus brief urging the United States Supreme Court to hear a case challenging the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) broad authority to write safety standards for nearly every business in America.
Few statutes are so broad or limitless as the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which authorizes OSHA to create, issue, and enforce “any occupational safety or health standard” it deems “appropriate.” It gives OSHA broad power to make rules for nearly every American workplace, including the petitioner in this case, a small business that has never experienced a major work-related injury but faces tens of thousands of dollars in fines if it violates any one of OSHA’s many arbitrary standards.
In its brief, SLF explains that this scheme, which allows OSHA to create, define, and enforce its arbitrary standards for workplace safety, violates the Constitution’s nondelegation principle. As early as the founding, when the Framers protected against tyranny by separating the powers of government, there was general agreement among the Framers that not even Congress could delegate some of its authority to the executive branch.
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Unfortunately, many courts have ignored this nondelegation doctrine, allowing Congress to avoid any accountability and shirk its duties by handing all of its power over to executive agencies to make and enforce rules.
SLF urges the Supreme Court to use this opportunity to affirm the nondelegation doctrine and declare that the power given to OSHA to create, define, and enforce the law arbitrarily violates the Constitution.