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Another day, another multi-state legal challenge involving South Carolina attorney general Alan Wilson.
This time, it’s a 17-state coalition seeking to slam the brakes on yet another scheme by the administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris aimed at expanding the influence of organized labor. The Biden/Harris labor department recently issued a new rule allowing migrant farm workers to receive union rights that domestic farm workers don’t have. That goes against federal law because the department is attempting to unconstitutionally create a law it doesn’t have the authority to make.
“Here we go again,” Wilson said in a statement. “The Biden administration is almost constantly trying to enact rules and regulations that it does not have the authority to do, but we’ll keep fighting this unconstitutional overreach every time it happens.”
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The U.S. District Court for the southern district of Georgia agreed to the states’ motion for a preliminary junction to stop the move while the lawsuit is pending. That injunction doesn’t apply nationwide, but it includes the plaintiff stages (including South Carolina) and private plaintiffs. Other participants in the lawsuit include the agriculture-heavy states of Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Private groups Miles Berry Farm and the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association are also plaintiffs.
At issue is the department’s new rule, “Improving Protections for Workers in Temporary Agricultural Employment in the United States.” The coalition argues the rule illegally provides collective bargaining rights to agricultural migrant workers employed in the U.S. under the H-2A visa program.
Were the rule allowed to stand, it would give those migrant workers rights that U.S. citizens working agricultural jobs do not have.
Dozens of attorneys general around the country have stepped forward in recent years to defend the rights of their states that Washington intentionally ignores. As a result, such legal challenges are playing an increasingly important role in the duties of attorney general offices in more than two dozen states.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at mark@fitsnews.com.
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1 comment
Republicans stuck between wanting to get rid of migrant labor, but not wanting unionization to lessen their exploitability is peak late stage capitalism.