Petition for Rehearing in Alaska v. EEOC

A little more than a month ago, we wrote about the 9th Circuit's decision in Alaska v. EEOC.  In that case:

The court concluded that Congress did not validly abrogate the states' 11th Amendment immunity when it passed GERA (at least as to the level of employee at issue in this case).  The court noted that "GERA was enacted with no findings by Congress as to state practices of discrimination against employees at this level of government."  The court noted additionally, "[i]t would be guesswork ... to suppose that a widespread pattern of intentional discrimination on account of gender or race existed among the fifty governors of the states as they selected staff assisting them in the exercise of their office."  Accordingly, the court concluded "[w]e do not believe that GERA is a proportionate response to a widespread evil identified as the predicate of this legislation."

The employee-intervenor has now a filed a petition for rehearing.

 

As may be gathered from my previous post on this case, I hope the petition is granted.

PS