Court Opinion

ID: 9426999
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:19:26.257128+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:04.420016
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Blackmun,
concurring.
Petitioner Department ruled that respondent became ineligible for state employment insurance benefits when she “enrolled in summer school” (Pet. for Cert. 3) and attended classes from 7 a. m. to 9 a. m., Monday through Friday. These early morning hours of instruction obviously preceded the working day of a retail clerk, respondent's occupation. I would have thought, in light of the fact those school hours did not impinge upon the working day, that the Supreme Court of Idaho might have regarded this as attendance at “night school,” within the meaning of Idaho Code § 72-1312 (a) (1973). That court, however, chose not to do so and, instead, rested its decision upon difficult and precarious federal equal protection analysis. Correct equal protection analysis, it seems to me, necessarily redounds to petitioner’s, rather than respondent’s, benefit, and I therefore am compelled, albeit somewhat reluctantly (because the respondent, who was without counsel in the state proceedings, will never understand why the law is against her in this respect), to join the Court’s opinion summarily reversing the judgment of the Idaho court.