DOL Seeks To Limit FMSHRC’s Authority To Review Prosecutorial Discretion

The Labor Department (DOL) is asking the D.C. Circuit to reverse several decisions from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC) that rejected the DOL secretary’s changes to health and safety citations in enforcement settlements with mining companies, arguing FMSHRC overstepped its authority. One set of consolidated cases concerns the secretary’s discretion to vacate a citation, which DOL says is a prosecutorial decision to drop a charge, after a mine operator has contested it before FMSHRC. The other...