Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/1525790
Adele L. Abrams is an a orney and safety professional who represents companies in li ga on with OSHA and also provides safety training and consulta on. The Law Office of Adele L. Abrams PC has three offices: Beltsville, MD; Denver, CO; and Charleton, WV. She may be reached at safety-law.com or 301- 595-3520. 3. individual judges could decide " based on their personal knowledge" that the rule is not acceptable, or that different choices should have been made. A second SCOTUS decision this term, Corner Post v. Board of Gov of Federal Reserve System (another 6 –3 decision), held that lawsuits over OSHA rules and other agencies' " f inal agency action" do not have to begin within six years of the promulgation of the rule, but instead must be brought within six years of when the part y was f irst injured by a particular policy (which overturns 75 years of precedent). This opens the f loodgates for lawsuits against long-standing OSHA /MSHA /EPA agency rules and policies. The Corner Post decision, written by Justice Barrett, arose under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) (and did not involve OSHA), but it held across the US government that claims challenging agency rulemaking or other action accrues "when plaintiff is injured by f inal agency action" and therefore companies that did not exist when a rule was promulgated can resurrect challenges at any time they feel " harmed " by a rule. In her dissent, Justice Brown Jackson warned that "the tsunami of lawsuits against agencies . . . has the potential to devastate the functioning of the Federal Government;" there are "no longer any limitations period for lawsuits that challenge agency regulations on their face" which is "destabilizing for both government and businesses." West Virginia's attorney general responded, "Federal agencies should be held to account for their actions, even when years have passed from the time the rule was f irst issued." If these decisions stand, and are not superseded through congressional legislation, it may spell the end of vigorous agency rulemaking in 2025 . . . and beyond. Pallet C e nt ral • S e ptem be r- O ctobe r 2 0 24 39