Divided court rules that auto repair shop qualifies as a coal mine

Washington, DC; April 17, 2026: A federal appeals court ruled today that a West Virginia truck repair shop qualifies as a “mine” under federal law — a setback for an independent trucking company that has fought for years against federal regulators’ expansive reading of their own authority — but a forceful dissent adopted all of the constitutional arguments Pacific Legal Foundation advanced in the case.

“No amount of regulatory wordsmithing can turn a truck repair shop into a coal mine,” said Adi Dynar, an attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation. “The Mine Act’s definition of ‘mine’ has geographic and functional limits, and KC Transport’s shop — miles from any extraction site, where no extraction, milling, or preparation occurs — does not qualify.”

KC Transport has operated its Emmett, West Virginia, facility for years, maintaining trucks that haul coal and other materials for various customers. In 2019, a Mine Safety and Health Administration inspector showed up and cited the company for repairing trucks without putting blocks around the wheels.

KC Transport challenged the citations in an executive branch proceeding before the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, which sided with the company. But the head of a separate executive branch agency, the Secretary of Labor, appealed. In today’s ruling, the DC Circuit sided with the Labor Secretary’s argument that the word “mine” in the Mine Act includes non-mines.

In dissent, Judge Justin Walker agreed with PLF’s arguments on the meaning of the word “mine” and on the constitutional question of whether federal courts have jurisdiction to decide disputes between two parts of the executive branch, as is the case here, where the Labor Secretary disagrees with the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission.

“Under our Constitution, the resolution of an intra–Executive Branch dispute belongs to the one ‘who alone composes’ the entire Executive ‘branch’ — the President. … Today’s suit pits the Executive Branch against itself,” Judge Walker writes. “That is not a ‘Case’ or ‘Controversy.’ It therefore has no place in a federal court.”

Pacific Legal Foundation, which represents KC Transport free of charge along with co-counsel Pence Law Firm, PLLC, has not yet decided whether to seek en banc review or petition the Supreme Court to take the case. The case is Secretary of Labor v. KC Transport.