Who is Eugene Scalia, Trump's labor secretary pick?
Eugene Scalia is President Trump’s pick for the next secretary of labor after Alex Acosta resigned last week.
Scalia, 55, is a veteran attorney who has represented large corporations and worked for the federal government. He’s also the son of former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in 2016.
He’s currently a partner at the Washington, D.C. law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. His work has included a number of major administrative law and labor cases.
Trump — in a tweet announcing his pick for labor secretary — said Scalia “has led a life of great success in the legal and labor field and is highlight respected not only as a lawyer but as a lawyer with great experience…. working with labor and everyone else."
Scalia successfully represented MetLife Inc. in its case challenging the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s rationale for classifying the company as a systemically important financial institution under the Dodd-Frank Act. In an interview with FOX Business after the 2016 ruling, Scalia said banks faced “intrusive” regulation.
In 2006, Scalia won a case for Walmart, getting a judge to strike down a law that would have forced the company to spend more on employee health care, The Washington Post reported. Walmart also hired Scalia to defend it against whistleblower lawsuits from former employees.
Scalia worked at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher when the firm represented George W. Bush in the Supreme Court case over the 2000 election, though he told the Chicago Tribune at the time he was “doing absolutely nothing on this case.”
He served as solicitor of the U.S. Department of Labor during Bush’s administration.
Scalia had first worked in the public sector as an aide to U.S. Education Secretary William J. Bennett from 1985 to 1987. Scalia worked in the U.S. Department of Justice from 1992 to1993 as a special assistant to Attorney General William Barr during Barr’s first time serving in the position.
At Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Scalia co-chairs the administrative law and practice group, according to the firm’s website. He also is a member of the firm’s labor and employment practice group and appellate and constitutional law practice group and has also served on its executive committee and its partnership evaluation committee.
In 2016, Scalia said in a FOX Business interview he believed “aggressive” oversight had caused “serious adverse effects” for some companies. He said it would be natural for the next administration to take a closer look at financial regulation.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP
He also said he expected his father’s views as a jurist “will be with us for a long time.”
“He was somebody who was very thoughtful about the role of courts in our country,” Scalia said of his late father.
