Supreme Court Holds that Flip-Flopping Alone Does Not Invalidate DOL’s Guidance on Exempt Status of Mortgage Loan Officers

On Monday, the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Association, examining the validity of the Department of Labor’s 2010 Administrator’s Interpretation on the application of the FLSA’s administrative exemption to mortgage loan officers. As noted in our previous post, the D.C. Circuit struck down the Administrator’s Interpretation because the DOL had abruptly reversed its own position on the issue, finding in a series of opinion letters that mortgage loan officers were exempt administrative employees, then issuing a surprise reversal of that position in the Administrator’s Interpretation. The D.C. Circuit’s decision was based on a line of cases that required an agency to undertake full notice and comment rulemaking when reversing course in its established views. The Supreme Court not only unanimously reversed the D.C. Circuit’s ruling, but also struck down the entire line of authority on which the D.C. Circuit based its ruling.

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