H1B Rules issued by Trump Admin in October are thrown out by Federal Court

On December 1, in Chamber of Commerce, et al., v. DHS, et al.,  the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California set aside the DHS interim final rule, Strengthening the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Classification Program, and the DOL interim final rule, Strengthening Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Aliens in the United States.  These rules would have drastically limited the professions that qualify for the H-1B program through reinterpretation of key program definitions, and in many cases caused wage requirements for H1B workers to double.  Of particular importance, both rules were issued without satisfying standard rulemaking procedures (namely solicitation and review of public comments).  The court found that good cause was not shown for this failure to follow standard rulemaking procedures and thus the court granted summary judgment to dismiss both new rules.