This week, the Ninth Circuit considers a challenge to the
constitutionality of the FAA's regulations governing drug and
alcohol testing for air-carrier employees, and it wrestles with
difficult choice-of-law questions concerning foreign arbitration
agreements.
REGENCY AIR, LLC v. DICKSON
The Court holds that FAA regulations requiring drug
and alcohol testing for employees performing safety-sensitive
functions are not unconstitutionally vague.
The panel: Judges R. Nelson, Lee, and
Stein (S.D.N.Y.), with Judge R. Nelson writing the opinion.
Key highlight: "Sections 120.35 and
120.39 do not mention what to do when an employee is concurrently
employed. But this silence does not doom the provisions as
unconstitutionally vague. Instead, the FAA chose to promulgate a
general rule: if an employee works on an air carrier's planes,
the air carrier must enroll the employee in its testing
program."
