Chuck Saine

Chuck is a small business owner. For the last 40 years, he has run C.S. Lawn & Landscaping near Annapolis, Maryland. His administrative odyssey began in 2015, when Department of Labor (DOL) investigators first showed up at his business, and ended in 2022, when DOL’s in-house agency judges imposed almost $55,000 in liability. In all, Chuck spent seven years fighting inside the agency. Worse, when DOL finally imposed that liability, it based the vast bulk of its award on the fact that C.S. Lawn rented an apartment to some of its workers that was located in an area that was not zoned residential. In other words, DOL dragged Chuck and his company through years of expensive agency proceedings because of an alleged violation of a local zoning ordinance.

Now Chuck is joining with the Institute for Justice to demand his day in court. Under Article III of the U.S. Constitution, Chuck should have been entitled to make his defense in a real federal court, with a real federal judge. And, under the Seventh Amendment, Chuck also should have been entitled to make his defense before a jury of his peers. The administrative proceedings in this case trampled on both rights.