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Eric Brown, et al. v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 5, AFL-CIO, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, No. 21-1640, 21-1684 · judgment July 25, 2022


Certiorari denied · December 5, 2022
Pre-decision estimate: 7% cert probability (95% interval 4%–11%)

Before the decision, about 1.6× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for counsel with five or more prior petitions here, an Eighth Circuit decision below, and a dissent in the court below (flagged in the petition).

Question presented

Section 1983 provides that “every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State” deprives a citizen of a constitutional right “shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress.” 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Petitioners are current and former employees of the State of Minnesota who were compelled to pay agency fees to AFSCME Council 5 or the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, under color of Minnesota state law, in violation of their First Amendment rights according to Janus v. AFSCME, 138 S. Ct. 2448 (2018). The question presented is: does defendants’ goodfaith reliance on a state law before it was held unconstitutional shield them from damages liability for taking agency fees from Petitioners in violation of their constitutional rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Jeffrey Michael Schwab
Liberty Justice Center

For respondent
Patrick Casey Pitts
Altshuler Berzon LLP

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Dec 05 2022
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Nov 15 2022
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 12/2/2022.
  3. Nov 14 2022
    Waiver of right of respondents American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 5, AFL-CIO, et al. to respond filed.
  4. Nov 14 2022
    Waiver of right of respondent Minnesota Association of Professional Employees to respond filed.
  5. Oct 24 2022
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due November 28, 2022)