GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Document Type

Brief

Publication Date

2026

Status

Accepted

Abstract

This amicus brief was filed in DOL v. Sun Valley Orchards by Professors Alan Morrison, Rob Glicksman, Richard Pierce, Peter Strauss and Jeffrey Lubbers. Amici argue that the Supreme Court should reverse the Third Circuit’s decision that DOL lacks the power to adjudicate disputes involving the safety and adequacy of the housing, food, and transportation provided by employers to non-citizen temporary agricultural workers. The Third Circuit’s holding was based on its belief that the constitution confers the power to adjudicate such disputes exclusively on Article III courts.

Amici argue that the dispute at issue falls squarely within the scope of the public rights doctrine. The Supreme Court has long recognized public rights disputes as exceptions to the scope of the exclusive adjudicatory power of Article III courts and has consistently applied the public rights doctrine in analogous cases. As Chief Justice Roberts summarized the public rights doctrine in the Court’s 2011 opinion in Stern v. Marshall, it applies to “cases in which the claim at issue derives from a regulatory scheme or in which resolution of the claim by an expert agency is deemed essential to a limited regulatory objective within the agency’s authority.” This dispute clearly falls within that definition.

Congress gave DOL the authority to determine the safe and adequate housing, food, and transportation that employers must provide to non-citizen temporary agricultural workers to satisfy the conditions on their privilege to import those workers and gave DOL the responsibility to ensure that employers comply with the DOL requirements.  The requirement of safe and adequate housing, food, and transportation for temporary non-citizen agricultural workers also protects the jobs and working conditions of domestic farm workers.

GW Paper Series

2026-50

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