The Supreme Court has declined to take a case that could have gutted a federal agency tasked with ensuring workplace safety, delivering a rare victory—particularly in recent days and years—for the federal government’s administrative powers.

The court will not hear arguments in Allstates Refractory Contractors v. Su, a case that had sought to undermine and effectively disempower the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The judges did not state their reasons for refusing to take the case, though two of the justices on the panel—Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas—noted they would have accepted it.

Allstates, with support of conservative groups and nearly half of U.S. states, has brought its case through the federal court system arguing OSHA’s mandate is overly broad and amounts to an unconstitutional delegation of power from Congress to the executive branch. OSHA had issued a fine against the contractor for the glass, metal and petrochemical industries after equipment at one of its facilities fell on and injured an employee.

The petitioner had sought to block OSHA from enforcing workplace standards against any employer, arguing Congress had provided few limits on its power. The Biden administration rejected that argument, saying the law authorizing OSHA does not, as the petitioner asserted, give the agency “nearly unfettered discretion’ to make whatever workplace safety rules it wants.”

Click here for full story from the Government Executive