Elizabeth (Betsy) Dorminey, a Principal in the Firm, advises and represents employers in all areas of labor and employment law, with an emphasis on wage & hour, Title VII, and workplace safety (OSHA). She has been successful defending employers in a number of collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and has won many hotly contested cases on summary judgment, avoiding time-consuming and expensive trials. For clients in construction and manufacturing, she has prevailed over the Solicitor of Labor in a number of OSHA cases. Betsy defends and advises large and small clients in many industries, including food processing, farming, manufacturing, and construction.
Speaking and Writing
Betsy teaches, speaks and writes on a variety of issues. She has appeared in radio debates on NPR, recorded commentary on Supreme Court decisions for SCOTUS cast, and testified before Congress on internet accessibility and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
She is the co-author, with Larry Stine and Mark Waschak, of Occupational Safety and Health Law: Compliance and Practice (Thomson/West 2008-2012).
Education
Betsy earned a JD from the University of Georgia, and an LL.M from Columbia. She was a Law Clerk to the Hon. Edward Carnes of the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, and held several posts in the U.S. Departments of Justice and Commerce prior to entering private practice. She is admitted to the state bars of Georgia, New York and Connecticut, and to Federal Appeals and District Courts in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, North and South Carolina, Arkansas and Texas.
Reining In the Administrative State: What the Supreme Court Has Been Up To, and Why it Matters for Employers
In recent years, the Supreme Court has been steadily curtailing the power and influence of Federal agencies like the EPA, SEC, and DOL. Labor and employment cases have frequently been the Court's chosen vehicle. This webinar examined how the Supreme Court used matters as diverse as auto repair advisors, the Clean Air Act, and fishermen to restore constitutional guardrails to keep the "headless fourth branch" of government in check. Stine and Betsy Dorminey conducted a practical discussion on these pivotal cases.
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Webinar Key Insights
The stakes for employers in this new legal landscape are remarkably high. Failing to understand how the Supreme Court is dismantling the administrative state could leave your business vulnerable to outdated compliance strategies or, conversely, cause you to miss significant opportunities to challenge overreaching agency actions that were previously considered settled law. As the fourth branch of government is reined in, the shift from agency deference to constitutional literalism means that the rules governing your workforce—from H-2A guest worker programs to OSHA safety standards—are now more susceptible to judicial scrutiny than they have been in forty years.
- The Supreme Court has officially ended Chevron deference, meaning judges will no longer automatically defer to an agency's interpretation of an ambiguous law; instead, they must provide their own independent, fair reading of the statute.
- Under the Jarkesy ruling, if a government agency like the SEC or Department of Labor seeks to impose significant civil penalties or money damages, you now have a Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial before an Article III judge rather than a purely administrative proceeding.
- The Major Questions Doctrine prevents agencies from making massive policy shifts—such as OSHA vaccine mandates or EPA cap-and-trade systems—without explicit and clear authorization from Congress.
- The statute of limitations for challenging federal regulations has been expanded; the Corner Post decision allows businesses to challenge a rule within five years of being injured by it, even if the regulation was originally issued decades ago.
- Labor exemptions are no longer strictly and narrowly construed to favor the employee; they are now entitled to a neutral, fair reading that treats the employer’s position with equal weight under the law.
- The President’s power to fire members of administrative boards is being expanded, potentially making these independent agencies more accountable to the executive branch and less able to operate as a headless fourth branch of government.
We are witnessing a tectonic shift in governance where the judicial branch is reclaiming its role as the final arbiter of what the law means. By dismantling decades of agency overreach and restoring the separation of powers, the courts are forcing the administrative state back into its constitutional lane, providing employers with powerful new tools to defend their interests.
