The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today heard arguments on whether the U.S. Department of Labor has the authority to extend minimum wage and overtime protections to nearly 2 million home care workers. In Home Care Association of America v. Weil, several home care trade associations and the International Franchise Association are challenging the authority of the Labor Department to redefine the Fair Labor Standards Act companionship exemption. In late December 2014 and early January 2015, in two rulings, Federal District Judge Richard Leon ruled in favor of the industry and vacated the DOL’s Final Home Care Rule, which extended federal labor protections to the vast majority of home care workers. The court’s decision will affect not only the current workers but millions more in the coming decades as this sector continues to grow, according to a statement by the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, a New York-based advocacy organization. “We trust that the federal court system will validate the authority of the Department of Labor to extend these long-overdue protections to home care workers,” the institute said in a release.