Constitutional Opinion No. 2026-0738
Case Information
- Content Scored
- OSHA Fines Houston Contractor $343K After Worker Hospitalized in Excavation Collapse (July 15, 2026)
- Source
- U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (dol.gov)
- Author
- U.S. Department of Labor / OSHA
- Publication Date
- 2026-07-15
- Content Type
- Government Press Release
- Opinion Issued
- 2026-07-19
- AFCS Version
- 1.0
Holding
This OSHA enforcement action is the safety counterpart to the wage-recovery release scored a day earlier (0737, 70), and it is scored consistently. After a worker was hospitalized when an excavation collapsed at a residential worksite, the Department cited the contractor with two repeat violations and one other-than-serious violation and $343,797 in proposed penalties, finding it failed to adequately protect the excavation, provide a safe means of egress, and report the hospitalization within 24 hours as required by federal law. Read against the canon, this is the government doing what Law, Order, and the Safety of the Citizen most directly names — enforcing the law to protect the physical safety of the American worker, and holding a violator accountable (XVIII, the article whose very title is the safety of the citizen). It defends the American worker from a preventable hazard (II), and while it rests on federal safety regulation that a limited-government reading regards with some caution, it enforces existing law rather than expanding it and advances no new mandate (IX, mixed). The register is factual, official, and non-partisan. The result sits a hair below its wage-recovery counterpart for one honest reason: that action returned stolen earnings to the workers — a concrete restitution the Standard credits on property — while this one is a deterrent penalty without a comparable make-whole for the injured worker. Tier 1 nets to 64; the result is 69 — Mostly America First.
It is the judgment of this Court that Opinion No. 2026-0738 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.