Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District v. United States Department of Labor

I. INTRODUCTION

16 Plaintiff Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District seeks a declaratory 17 judgment that Defendant Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) violated the 18 Administrative Procedures Act (“APA”) when it issued an interpretive letter about its scaffolding 19 regulations. OSHA and Co-Defendants, the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”). the 20 Acting Labor Secretary, and the Assistant Labor Secretary for OSHA (collectively, “Defendants”), 21 move to dismiss the complaint on the grounds that Plaintiff lacks Article III standing and that the 22 challenged letter was not a final agency action reviewable under the APA. For the reasons 23 explained below, the motion to dismiss is granted. 24

II. BACKGROUND

25 In 1996, OSHA issued certain scaffolding regulations following a formal notice-and- 26 comment rulemaking process. Under these regulations, “each scaffold and scaffold component 27 shall be capable of supporting, without failure, its own weight and at least 4 times the maximum 1 intended load applied or transmitted to it.” 29 C.F.R. § 1926.451(a)(1); see also First Amended 2 Complaint (“FAC”) ¶¶ 2, 28–30. The regulations…