Lawrence Halprin Quoted in Bloomberg Law Article on South Carolina’s Challenge of OSHA Penalty Rule

Keller and Heckman Partner Lawrence Halprin was quoted in the Bloomberg Law article, “Fourth Circuit Loss Leaves South Carolina Room to Fight OSHA.” The article discusses a recent Fourth Circuit decision rejecting South Carolina’s challenge to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) 2016 rule requiring state workplace safety programs to maintain maximum penalties that match federal OSHA fines. While the court held that South Carolina’s lawsuit was filed too late under the Administrative Procedure Act’s statute of limitations, it left open the possibility that the state could challenge the rule in a future enforcement or decertification proceeding if OSHA takes action against the state.

Lawrence mentioned, “I would not be surprised if South Carolina decided to make a political statement by refusing to follow the OSHA rule,” suggesting this could force the federal government to initiate decertification proceedings. He also said, “The 50 states are powerful political entities that often do things for political reasons and to make political statements,” and argued that states do not “have to be concerned with willful citations, but only decertification proceedings — which I expect would quickly be dismissed if the state amended its penalty structure.” 

To read the full article, please click here.