Fifteen years ago, a little-known federal judge named Brett Kavanaugh argued that the country’s top workplace regulator overstepped when it cited an aquatic theme park for a gruesome worker death because viewers enjoy seeing “these amazing feats of competition and daring.”

Now Kavanaugh is a US Supreme Court justice, and the workplace-safety agency wants to codify his argument into law. The move would strip basic workplace safety protections from potentially hundreds of thousands of employees.

In July, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced a proposal to exclude “inherently risky professions,” including those in sports and entertainment, from the agency’s General Duty Clause. The agency explicitly references Kavanaugh’s dissent in the proposal, saying it “preliminarily concurs with the dissent’s concerns.”