Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas went against his colleagues about taking up a case that challenged the authority of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration .The court on Tuesday declined to hear an appeal by Allstates Refractory Contractors after a lower court threw out the Ohio company's lawsuit against OSHA.The lawsuit argued that a 1970 federal law that gave OSHA the sweeping authority to issue workplace safety standards violates Article 1 of the U.S.
The Occupational Safety and Health Act 'may be the broadest delegation of power to an administrative agency found in the United States Code,' Thomas wrote. 'If this far-reaching grant of authority does not impermissibly confer legislative power on an agency, it is hard to imagine what would.'It would be 'no less objectionable,' he argued, if Congress 'gave the Internal Revenue Service authority to impose any tax on a particular person that it deems 'appropriate.