Federation of Americans for Consumer Choice Inc. (FACC), an insurance trade group, and other companies, individuals, and industry groups previously filed suit challenging the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) so-called fiduciary rule under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The Biden-era regulations expanded the definition of a fiduciary under ERISA (including an investment advice fiduciary), amended PTE 84-24, the prohibited transaction exemption currently used by the insurance industry, and modified PTE 2020-02, an exemption used by the financial industry to recommend rollovers. Judges in this case and a separate case filed by the American Council of Life Insurers in another Texas federal district court collectively stayed the effective date of the rules.
The Biden DOL appealed the decisions, but the DOL dismissed their appeals in late 2025. As a result, the plaintiffs filed a motion for the court to enter a final judgment vacating the regulations, stating that the DOL didn’t oppose the motion. This motion follows on the heels of the same motion filed by the American Council of Life Insurers in its suit.
More specifically, the DOL claimed that the APA didn’t authorize a court to legally vacate a federal agency rule based on authority in some circuits, including the Fifth Circuit. However, the DOL asked only that if the court chose to issue such an order, it should be party-specific. This stance allows the DOL to reserve the right to make that argument in other cases while simultaneously voicing no objection to the plaintiffs’ motions for judgment in either case.
The cases are the Federation of Americans for Consumer Choice Inc. et al. v. United States Department of Labor et al., Case Number 6:24-cv-00163, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, and the American Council of Life Insurers et al. v. United States Department of Labor et al., Case Number 4:24-cv-00482, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
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