In a rare court decision challenging the constitutional enforcement authority of the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), a federal district court in Ohio has ruled that the agency violated a federal construction contractor’s constitutional rights by moving up a compliance audit based on verbal complaints expressed by attendees at an agency community outreach event that occurred a year earlier.
The April 6, 2018, ruling by District Court Judge Dlott in Baker DC, LLC v. Acosta, Case No. 1:17-cv-530 (S.D. Ohio 2018), is noteworthy for several reasons. First, it is one of the rare cases that addresses the constitutional limits of OFCCP’s investigatory authority. Second, it concludes that constitutional criteria apply to both selection and scheduling procedures. And finally, it finds that an administrative plan that includes “human input” is de facto not neutral under the Fourth Amendment.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.