The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky has set the hearing on Nov. 4 at 9 a.m. for the lawsuit filed by the National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE) alongside several agricultural associations and individual farmers.

The NCAE is the national trade association focusing on agricultural labor issues from the employer's viewpoint. The lawsuit, filed on September 16 in the Eastern District of Kentucky, challenges the Department of Labor's Improving Protections for Workers in Temporary Agricultural Employment in the United States rule.

On Aug. 29, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia granted a preliminary injunction blocking the rule in 16 states, including Texas, Florida, and Virginia. However, the injunction leaves two-thirds of the states exposed to the rule’s provisions.

Michael Marsh, NCAE President and CEO, says the rule "unequivocally and unlawfully violates the rights of America’s farmers and ranchers by stripping employers of the due process rights afforded to them by the Constitution, imposing new illogical duties on farmers that infantilize and jeopardize the safety of their farmworkers, and providing America’s foreign competition a financial advantage by artificially inflating the regulatory costs to the detriment of America’s producers as well as consumers.” 

The CEO commends the court's swift action, adding "that America's farm and ranch families are grateful that the Court in Kentucky wasted no time in treating this matter seriously."

This hearing is the latest update on the nationwide status of the Rule.