Amy Howe

Jan 16 2024

Justices reject Alaska state employee union dues dispute

In 2018, in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, & Municipal Employees, the Supreme Court held that government employees who are represented by a union but do not belong to that union cannot be required to pay a fee to cover the union’s costs to negotiate a contract that applies to all employees. On Tuesday, the justices rejected a request to decide whether the state of Alaska can decline to deduct union dues from a state employee’s paycheck unless it has the employee’s clear consent to do so.

After the Alaska Supreme Court held that Janus does not require the state to obtain consent, the state came to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking review of that decision. As part of a list of orders issued on Tuesday from the justices’ private conference on Friday, the justices denied review without comment.

The justices added five new cases to their docket for the 2023-24 term on Friday afternoon, so it was not surprising that they did not grant review in any new cases on Tuesday.

The justices once again did not act on a request by a group of parents and alumni to weigh in on the constitutionality of the admissions policy at a prestigious public magnet school in the Washington, D.C., suburbs. The justices considered Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board last week for the third consecutive conference, but it did not appear on either Friday’s or Tuesday’s list of orders.

The justices will meet again to consider more petitions for review on Friday, Jan. 19.

This post is also published on SCOTUSblog.

Amy L Howe
Until September 2016, Amy served as the editor and reporter for SCOTUSblog, a blog devoted to coverage of the Supreme Court of the United States; she continues to serve as an independent contractor and reporter for SCOTUSblog. Before turning to full-time blogging, she served as counsel in over two dozen merits cases at the Supreme Court and argued two cases there. From 2004 until 2011, she co-taught Supreme Court litigation at Stanford Law School; from 2005 until 2013, she co-taught a similar class at Harvard Law School. She has also served as an adjunct professor at American University’s Washington College of Law and Vanderbilt Law School. Amy is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a master’s degree in Arab Studies and a law degree from Georgetown University.
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