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The Supreme Court held 5 to 4 on 3/19/02 that 29 C.F.R. § 825.700(a), a Department of Labor regulation purporting to implement the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), exceeds the Secretary of Labor’s authority under the Act. The FMLA guarantees eligible employees twelve weeks of leave in a one-year period to attend to family health problems or the birth or adoption of a child. Under 29 C.F.R. § 825.700(a), employers were required specifically to inform employees when their leave is considered FMLA time, or else the leave did not count against the FMLA entitlement. The Court held that this regulation is a categorical penalty on employers that is incompatible with the FMLA’s comprehensive remedial scheme. It wrongly presumes that all employees are harmed by an employer’s failure to provide notice, alters the employee’s burden of proof under the Act, and punishes employers that allow employees to take more leave than the FMLA requires. This case is important to all business covered by the FMLA.