Scalia has long record of opposing federal regulations
WASHINGTON» Eugene Scalia has a decades-long record of challenging Labor Department and other federal regulations, as well as a famous last name. The combination proved irresistible to President Donald Trump.
Trump selected Scalia Thursday to be his new labor secretary. If formally nominated and confirmed, he’ll join an administration that has moved aggressively to reverse regulations and work under a president who repeatedly lauded Scalia’s late father, Justice Antonin Scalia.
The president announced the news on Twitter less than a week after his previous secretary, Alexander Acosta, said he would resign.
Scalia, 55, served for a year as the Labor Department’s top lawyer, its solicitor, during the George W. Bush administration. But most of his career has been spent as a partner in the Washington office of the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher firm, where he has run up a string of victories in court cases on behalf of business interests challenging labor and financial regulations. “Suing the Government? Call Scalia!” was the headline on a 2012 profile by Bloomberg.
His most prominent labor case helped undo an Obama-era rule to put stricter requirements on professionals who advise retirement savers on investments.
He also criticized a Clinton-era rule to protect workers from repetitivestress injuries that ultimately was repealed early in the Bush administration. Scalia defended Boeing from a union lawsuit and fought on behalf of Walmart against a Maryland law aimed at improving workers’ health care.
Scalia represented the Chamber of Commerce opposing rules requiring mutual fund companies to put independent overseers on their boards of directors, and insurance companies challenging the SEC’s authority to regulate certain annuities with values tied to stocks.
In 2016, he successfully argued for removal of a designation given to insurance giant MetLife by federal regulators that would have brought stricter government oversight.