Policy Week in Review – May 1, 2026
At a Glance The Policy Week in Review, prepared by Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute (WPI), sets forth WPI’s updates on federal legislation, regulations, and congressional activity affecting the workplace. U.S. Supreme Court to Decide Whether Agencies Can Levy Monetary Fines Without Going to Court The U.S. Supreme Court has accepted a case, Sun Valley Orchards v. U.S. Department of Labor , asking whether federal agencies can collect monetary penalties through their in-house enforcement schemes. The case comes out of the Department of Labor’s procedure for enforcing wage violations in the H-2A visa program. The Department’s procedure funnels cases into a hearing before an administrative-law judge (an agency employee). That hearing can then be followed by an appeal to the Department’s own Administrative Review Board. Last year, a court of appeals held that this procedure violated Article III of the U.S. Constitution. Article III requires all “private...