Constitutional Opinion No. 2026-0737
Case Information
- Content Scored
- U.S. Department of Labor Recovers $500K in Back Wages from San Diego Deli (WHD, July 17, 2026)
- Source
- U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division (dol.gov)
- Author
- U.S. Department of Labor (WHD Administrator Andrew Rogers)
- Publication Date
- 2026-07-17
- Content Type
- Government Press Release
- Opinion Issued
- 2026-07-19
- AFCS Version
- 1.0
Holding
This is a routine federal enforcement action, and it engages the Standard on the axis where the Standard is strongest: the rule of law applied to protect the citizen from being cheated. The Department recovered $500,256 in back wages for six workers from an employer who paid a flat rate of $100 per day despite often working 11-hour days, averaging 55 hours each week, below the local minimum wage and with no overtime premiums. Each worker recovered approximately $83,000. Read against the canon, this is not primarily a story about federal regulation; it is a story about a wrongdoer held to account and workers restored to what they had earned. The rule of law operating accountably — the government enforcing the law against a violator and making the victims whole — is the heart of Law, Order, and the Safety of the Citizen (XVIII). The recovery of earned but withheld wages is the protection of the citizen-worker's property (IX). And defending American workers from exploitation is squarely within the citizen-first concern the Standard elevates (II). The one countervailing consideration, recorded honestly: the enforcement rests on federal wage-and-hour mandates, and a strict limited-government reading views federal economic regulation with some caution. But this action enforces existing law rather than expanding government, and its effect is restitution — returning stolen earnings — which even a limited-government disposition can support. The register is factual, official, and non-partisan, credited highly by the reliability tier. Tier 1 nets to 65; the result is 70 — Mostly America First.
It is the judgment of this Court that Opinion No. 2026-0737 is hereby entered into the record, in accordance with the America First Constitutional Standard. The score stands. The reasoning is published. The record is public.