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Slidewaters LLC v. Washington Department of Labor and Industries, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 20-35634 · judgment July 8, 2021


Certiorari denied · January 10, 2022
Pre-decision estimate: 4% cert probability

Before the decision, roughly the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a Ninth Circuit decision below, a dissent in the court below (flagged in the petition), and a business petitioner.

Question presented

The Washington State Legislature delegates all police power and legislative authority to its governor in times of emergency. This delegation is in no way limited by any intelligible principle beyond the simple phrase “that the governor must terminate said state of emergency proclamation when order has been restored in the area affected.” RCW 43.06.210. As seen throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, this blend of legislative and executive authority has been unfettered, permitting the governor to extend the selfproclaimed state of emergency without any recourse, and grant any authority to state agencies to make and execute laws as they see fit. A panel of the Ninth Circuit upheld this limitless delegation as perfectly compatible with separation of powers principles. The Question Presented in this Petition is: Does a state legislature’s delegation of unlimited and inherently legislative police power to a state executive violate the separation of powers, even given a perpetual state of emergency?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Timothy Ray Snowball
Freedom Foundation

For respondent
Jeffrey Todd Even

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Jan 10 2022
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Dec 15 2021
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/7/2022.
  3. Dec 10 2021
    Waiver of right of respondent Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, and, Governor Jay Inslee, in his official capacity to respond filed.
  4. Dec 06 2021
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due January 7, 2022)