On Friday a federal judge in Texas struck down a new rule from the Biden administration aimed at extending overtime protections to millions of workers.
Judge Sean D. Jordan of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled that the Labor Department went beyond its authority in issuing the regulation earlier this year. He granted summary judgment to the state of Texas, which had sued to stop the rule from taking effect.
The overtime rule is one of the furthest-reaching economic reforms that President Joe Biden has pursued unilaterally through the federal rulemaking process. It would dramatically expand the share of workers who are entitled to time-and-a-half pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week.
But thanks to court battles like the one in Texas, the regulation’s future was in doubt even before Donald Trump, who has broadly promised to undo Biden’s agenda, won the presidential election.
Jordan, who Trump nominated to the bench in 2019 during his first term in the White House, had temporarily blocked the overtime rule from moving forward in Texas in June. His latest order halts the regulation across the country, leaving the current, stricter overtime rules intact.