Su Says DOL ‘Not Backing Down’ After High Court Axed Chevron

Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su said the US Labor Department will press forward with rules and policies in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s ruling last month dealing a blow to federal agencies’ power.

“The short answer is yes,” Su said Wednesday when asked if she was concerned about the high court’s June 28 ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which eliminated a decades-old doctrine that required courts to defer to agency interpretations of unclear laws.

“We’ve had a number of, frankly, shocking decisions from the Supreme Court of late that are stripping away the rights of workers, the rights of women, and the rights of vulnerable communities, and the ability of the government to actually step in and help,” she said.

But despite the Supreme Court overturning Chevron deference, Su said she remains confident in the agency’s ability to withstand challenges under the new precedent.

“Having said that, we believe that all of the rules that we have put out” are “squarely within our authority within the law,” she said.

“The work that we’re doing is saving lives, it is creating opportunity that’s really important to us to continue on,” Su said “We are not backing down.”

Su’s remarks came after a tour Wednesday of a training center at a Sheet Metal Workers’ Local 19 in Philadelphia, where she and Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo promoted the Treasury Department’s new final rules on prevailing wage and Registered Apprenticeship requirements under the Inflation Reduction Act.

So far this year, the Labor Department has finalized rules to expand overtime pay eligibility to 4 million workers, update a test for classifying workers as contractors, expand fiduciary responsibilities for retirement investing, allow outside worker representatives to join safety inspections, and grant labor protections to farmworkers on temporary visas. Those have all been challenged in court.