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The ruling issued Wednesday by Judge Richard Leon on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is a blow to the Obama administration and worker advocacy groups that fought for the added protections and a victory for trade groups that challenged the rule on behalf of third-party home care providers. “The department is trying to do through regulation what must be done through legislation,” wrote Judge Leon, who struck down another key portion of the rule in December. “I cannot help but conclude that Congress’s intent in 1974 to exempt from minimum and overtime wage requirements domestic workers providing services—including care to the elderly and disabled—is still as clear today as it was forty years ago,” he said. (Trottman, 1/14)

A federal judge on Wednesday overturned Labor Department regulations requiring overtime and minimum wage protection for 2 million home health care workers. In his decision, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said that the Labor Department's concerns about wages for home care providers are understandable, but that Congress is the appropriate forum in which to debate a complex issue affecting so many families. (Yost, 1/14)