AGs are defending OFCCP’s critical civil rights enforcement framework, and are attempting to stop Oracle’s efforts to strip the agency’s enforcement powers
The Attorneys General of California and Washington, D.C. are spearheading a multi-state coalition that filed an amicus brief in defense of OFCCP’s authority to pursue employment discrimination against federal contractors. The amicus brief, filed by the AGs of California, Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, DC, requests that the court preserve the current powers and regulatory authority of the OFCCP. The action comes after a lawsuit filed in D.C. federal district court by Oracle America, Inc. to declare the OFCCP’s enforcement regime unlawful.
Oracle’s three-count complaint calls OFCCP’s enforcement efforts a “power grab” and challenges them under the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers, the Administration Procedure Act, and Executive Order 11246.
The complaint references OFCCP’s “1977 Power Grab” whereby the agency and the Department of Labor (DOL) created a “coercive administrative-enforcement and adjudicative regime” for both prosecuting and deciding agency claims, alleging that federal contractors have not complied with the anti-discrimination contractual provisions of the federal contracts. Oracle alleged that when the DOL suspects that the contractor has violated the contractual provisions, the resolution process “is far removed from how breach-of-contract claims are normally resolved.”
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