Group challenged agency rule concerning overtime

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld federal agencies' ability to reinterpret some rules without first taking public comment, which resulted in a legal defeat to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

MBA sued the U.S. Department of Labor in 2010 after the agency reinterpreted an existing rule to conclude that mortgage-loan officers were entitled to overtime pay if they worked for more than 40 hours a week. The association argued the reinterpretation was such a big change that DOL should have used notice-and-comment rulemaking.

A lower court ruled in favor of MBA. However, federal agencies and many administration law scholars argued the ruling was flawed, noting that requiring notice-and-comment rulemaking for nearly every agency revision would be an expensive and time consuming process, according to SCOTUS Blog.

The Supreme Court overturned the lower court ruling in 9-0 decision Monday. The majority of justices concluded notice-and-comment rulemaking does not apply to interpretative rules. However, Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas both wrote separate opinions saying that while they agreed with the overall decision, they had concerns about federal agencies possibly having too much power.

MBA had not issued any statements on the ruling as of Wednesday morning.http://bit.ly/1EbBkYN