29 U.S.C. § 521
Section 521 · Investigations by Secretary; applicability of other laws
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 58 court decisions — leading case Wirtz v. (1968)
Most recently applied in Packowski v. United Food & Commercial Workers Local 951 (July 2010)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) 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. The Secretary may report to interested persons or officials concerning the facts required to be shown in any report required by this chapter and concerning the reasons for failure or refusal to file such a report or any other matter which he deems to be appropriate as a result of such an investigation.
(b) For the purpose of any investigation provided for in this chapter, the provisions of sections 49 and 50 of title 15 (relating to the attendance of witnesses and the production of books, papers, and documents), are made applicable to the jurisdiction, powers, and duties of the Secretary or any officers designated by him.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
References in Text
The phrase “this chapter (except subchapter II of this chapter)”, referred to in subsec. (a), was in the original “this Act (except title I or amendments made by this Act to other statutes)”. “This chapter”, referred to later in subsec. (a) and also in subsec. (b), was in the original “this Act”. “This Act” is Pub. L. 86–257, Sept. 14, 1959, 73 Stat. 519, as amended, known as the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, which enacted this chapter, amended sections 153, 158, 159, 160, 164, 186, and 187 of this title, and enacted provisions set out as notes under sections 153, 158, and 481 of this title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set out under section 401 of this title and Tables.