Opinion ID: 2999874
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Secretary’s Investigative Powers under

Text: 29 U.S.C. § 521 The subpoena power of the Secretary of Labor derives from 29 U.S.C. § 521(a) (also commonly referred to as § 601 of the LMRDA), which provides in relevant part as follows: The Secretary shall have power when he believes it necessary in order to determine whether any person has violated or is about to violate any provision of this chapter (except subchapter II of this chapter) to make an investigation and in connection therewith he may enter such places and inspect such records and accounts and question such persons as he may deem necessary to enable him to determine the facts relative thereto. (Emphasis added.) In general, an administrative agency’s subpoena meets the requirements for enforcement if (1) the inquiry is within the authority of the agency, (2) the demand is not too indefinite, and (3) the information sought is reasonably relevant to the investigation. United States v. Morton Salt Co., 338 U.S. 632, 653 (1950); EEOC v. Quad/ Graphics, Inc., 63 F.3d 642, 645 (7th Cir. 1995). An administrative agency’s subpoena power is intended to permit the agency to “investigate merely on suspicion that the law is being violated, or even just because it wants assurance that it is not.” Morton Salt Co., 338 U.S. at 642-43. In the statute quoted above, the only relevant limitation on the otherwise broad powers conferred by § 521 is that the power to investigate possible violations of the LMRDA does not No. 05-2478 7 extend to violations of “subchapter II,” i.e., Title I, of the Act.