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Katherine Miller v. Jay Inslee, Governor of Washington, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 16-35939 · judgment February 26, 2019

Certiorari denied · October 7, 2019
Pre-decision estimate: 2% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Question presented

The Court recently held that a state “requir[ing] that a union serve as exclusive bargaining agent for its employees [is] itself a significant impingement on associational freedoms . . . that would not be tolerated in other contexts.” Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31, 138 S. Ct. 2448, 2478 (2018). The State of Washington compels individuals who operate State subsidized home-based childcare businesses, and who are not government employees, to accept an exclusive representative that speaks for them in petitioning, lobbying, and contracting with the State over public policies that affect their profession. The question presented is whether Washington’s compelling nonmember providers to accept a private organization as their exclusive representative for dealing with the State over public policy is one of the “other contexts” in which the “significant impingement on associational freedoms” is not tolerated by the First Amendment.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Milton L. Chappell
c/o National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundatio

For respondent
Scott A. Kronland
Altshuler Berzon, LLP

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 2 conferences

Amicus briefs
3 cert-stage

Proceedings

  1. Oct 07 2019
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Sep 11 2019
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/1/2019.
  3. Sep 10 2019
    Reply of petitioner Katherine Miller filed.
  4. Aug 27 2019
    Brief of respondent Service Employees International Union, Local 925 in opposition filed.
  5. Aug 27 2019
    Brief of respondents State of Washington in opposition filed.
  6. Jul 18 2019
    Brief amicus curiae of Goldwater Institute filed.
  7. Jul 16 2019
    Brief amici curiae of Buckeye Institute, et al., filed.
  8. Jul 02 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including August 27, 2019, for all respondents.
  9. Jun 26 2019
    Blanket Consent filed on behalf of Petitioner, and respondents.
  10. Jun 25 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from July 18, 2019 to August 27, 2019, submitted to The Clerk.
  11. Jun 18 2019
    Response Requested. (Due July 18, 2019)
  12. Jun 14 2019
    Brief amicus curiae of Pacific Legal Foundation filed.
  13. Jun 04 2019
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 6/20/2019.
  14. May 30 2019
    Waiver of right of respondents Jay Inslee; Cheryl Strange; David Schumacher to respond filed.
  15. May 30 2019
    Waiver of right of respondent Service Employees International Union, Local 925 to respond filed.
  16. May 24 2019
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due June 28, 2019)