USA – Supreme Court decides Administrative Procedure Act rulemaking case
[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] ruled [decision, PDF] Monday in Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Association [SCOTUSblog backgrounder] that under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) [text, PDF] federal agencies are exempt from notice-and-comment requirements when amending or repealing interpretive rules. In 2006 the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division [official website] issued an opinion letter, at the request of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) [official website], holding that mortgage-loan officers fell within the administrative exemption to overtime pay requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act [DOL resources] and regulations promulgated by the Department in 2004. In 2010 the Department of Labor, without following notice-or-comment procedure, withdrew the 2006 opinion letter. The MBA filed suit contending that the repeal of the 2006 opinion letter violated the APA's notice-and-comment procedures as interpreted by the US Court of Appeals for District of Columbia Circuit [official website]…