CalPortland Company v. Robert Thomas, et al.

The Federal Mine Safety and Health Act (the “Mine Act”) provides that in judicial appeals from decisions of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, “[t]he findings of the Commission with respect to questions of fact, if supported by substantial evidence on the record considered as a whole, shall be conclusive.” 30 U.S.C. § 816(a)(1). The question presented is: When the Commission rejects factual findings of an administrative law judge and makes its own contrary findings, must courts defer to the “findings of the Commission” if supported by substantial evidence, as the Third, Sixth, and Eighth Circuits hold, or should courts instead defer to the contrary findings of the administrative law judge that the Commission rejected, as the Fourth, Ninth, Tenth, and D.C. Circuits hold?