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The NAM filed an amicus brief arguing for en banc review of a decision by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that held that workers employed on drilling platforms on the outer continental shelf (OCS) may bring claims under state wage and hour laws. The panel’s holding not only sharply departs from the settled expectations of both employers and employees working on OCS platforms, it also creates hundreds of millions of dollars of potential retroactive liability for employers and invites lawsuits in an area long understood to be under exclusive federal authority. The NAM’s brief argued that the panel opinion disrupts existing employer-employee relationships formed in reliance on longstanding interpretations of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and that the decision improperly elevates state law to supremacy over federal law, conflicting with congressional intent and inviting states to frustrate offshore oil and natural gas development. The court denied the petition for rehearing en banc; however, the court issued a stay on the mandate that allows OCS platform workers to bring claims under state law pending the filing of a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court.