On January 23, 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review an appeals court ruling upholding a Labor Department regulation that the Family and Medical Leave Act's 75-mile requirement is measured in "road" miles, (distance to be measured by surface miles, the shortest route on public roadways and waterways), rather than "as the crow flies."

The FMLA covers employees at a worksite of an employer that has at least 50 employees within a 75-mile radius of the worksite. An employee who took medical leave for heart surgery sought review of the U.S. Court of Appeals April 2005 decision in the Fifth Circuit in Bellum v. PCE Constructors Inc. that he was not covered by the FMLA because there were too few employees within 75 miles of the construction site where he worked. The Fifth Circuit rejected the employee's argument that the DOL regulation conflicts with the statutory language.