Just recently, the U.S. Supreme Court justices rejected a request to decide whether the state of Alaska can decline to deduct union dues from a state employee’s paycheck without clear consent from the employee. The issue stems from a ruling a few years ago, in 2018, when the court held that government employees, who are represented by a union but are not members, cannot be forced to pay a fee to cover the union’s costs in negotiating a contract that applies to all employees. The case was known as Janus v. American Federation of State, County, & Municipal Employees.
After the Alaska Supreme Court held that the Janus does not require the state to obtain consent, the state sought a review of that decision from the U.S. Supreme Court. However, as part of the list of orders issued Tuesday following the justices’ private conference on Friday, the review request was denied without comment.
Though the justices’ denial of review sent waves through the Alaska state employee sector, it didn’t come as a surprise that no new cases were added to their docket on Tuesday. This follows their move to add five new cases to their 2023-24 term docket just the previous Friday.
Another notable non-action by the court was their continued inattention to the request for their opinion on the constitutionality of the admissions policy at a renowned public magnet school in the Washington, D.C., suburbs. The issue, termed Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board, was considered at their conference for the third consecutive time but did not appear in the order lists, neither the one of Friday nor Tuesday.
The justices are set to meet again for the review of further petitions this coming Friday, January 19.
This report was originally published on SCOTUSblog courtesy of Amy Howe.