21 States File Lawsuit to Block New Overtime Regulations

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Late yesterday afternoon, twenty-one states, led by State of Nevada, and including Texas, filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Sherman Division, asking the Court to declare that the new overtime rules and regulations are: (1) substantively unlawful under the Constitution; (2) in excess of statutory jurisdiction, authority, or limitations under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA); (3) taken without observance of procedure required by law under the APA; (4) arbitrary and capricious under the APA; and (5) unlawful as applied to states under the APA. They also seek an injunction preventing the government from implementing, applying, and enforcing the regulations. A copy of the Complaint can be found here: http://bit.ly/2cWO1C3

Notably, although the lawsuit allegations focus primarily on the adverse impact the new regulations are expected to have on the plaintiffs, they also include a contention that private employers in the plaintiffs' states will suffer the same ill-effects of the new regulations.  

This litigation follows closely on the heels of the federal lawsuit filed several weeks ago by (and in) the State of Texas, wherein several states successfully blocked the government's attempt to enforce its interpretation of Title IX regulations that would require schools accepting public funding to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of the sex with which they identify.  That lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of Texas.

Employers can expect the government to mount a vigorous defense.




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