Industrial Union Department, AFL-CIO v. Hodgson
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
499 F.2d 467 (1974)
Under OSHA's general directive to set standards reasonably necessary for safe workplaces, the Department of Labor (defendant) promulgated a detailed asbestos-exposure rule, making extensive technical factual findings but also exercising policy judgment on issues not dictated by the facts, including setting a uniform industry-wide compliance date and varying recordkeeping retention periods across different types of records. The Industrial Union Department (plaintiff) challenged both the DOL's interpretation of OSHA and these specific rule provisions.
Whether, to the extent an agency's action depends on its own policy determination rather than on verifiable facts, the agency must explain the considerations that shaped that policy determination.