Originally Posted by
UnderOveur
Don't you mean the lobbyists lobbied the FAA rather than Congress? It was the FAA, not Congress, that has granted the exemption.
Also...
Why can't a lawsuit challenge an exemption to a law rather than the law itself? Wouldn't s plantiff simply be saying "I'm OK with the law, but dispute the exemption(s) granted to it?"
Consider...
The MIT grad calls a high-time airline CA to testify in court..."Captain, who would you rather have as your partner in a sim-check...an MIT grad who graduated with a 4.0, an electrical engineering degree, and has 1,200 flt hrs, or a K-state grad who graduated with a 2.5, an aviation degree, and has 1,000 flt hrs."??
"In your PROFESSIONAL and expert opinion, Captain, who is more qualified with these basic credentials to be your First Officer?"
The law was written with an allowance for the exemption... otherwise the faa couldn't just make up an " exception" to a federal law. The law allowed the FAA to fill in the details which they did.
Recent case law has affirmed that a federal agency acting within the scope of it's jurisdiction has significant latitude with rulemaking... it's a high hurdle to get a court to intervene, it would almost require illegal activity on the part of the agency or constitutional issues with the rule. There are no constitutional issues here, flying is a privilege not a right.