Court Opinion

ID: 9515088
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:53:39.780323+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:06:24.781066
License: Public Domain

ZINTER, Justice
(concurring in result).
[¶ 26.] I join all of the Court’s opinion except for that portion that, sua sponte, determines the merits of the exhaustion and Supremacy Clause issues on Teachers’ equal protection claim. See supra note 2 and ¶ 22. The issue is whether a requirement of state exhaustion violates the Supremacy Clause because exhaustion would “ ‘impose unnecessary burdens upon rights of recovery authorized by federal laws.’ ” Felder v. Casey, 487 U.S. 131, 150, 108 S.Ct. 2302, 2313, 101 L.Ed.2d 123, 146 (1988) (quoting Brown v. Western Ry. of Ala., 338 U.S. 294, 298-99, 70 S.Ct. 105, 108, 94 L.Ed. 100, 104 (1949); see also Monessen Southwestern Ry. Co. v. Morgan, 486 U.S. 330, 336, 108 S.Ct. 1837, 1842, 100 L.Ed.2d 349, 358 (1988)). However, the question of an unnecessary burden on Teachers’ equal protection claim was not briefed or argued by the parties in this appeal. We should not, therefore, entertain that substantive issue.
[¶ 27.] I concur, however, that the trial court’s dismissal of the equal protection claim must be reversed and remanded because it was dismissed, sua sponte, absent a motion to dismiss. Because it appears that the equal protection claim may have simply been grouped with the other dismissed claims, and because we are reversing those other claims, I would reverse the trial court’s dismissal, and remand the equal protection claim for further proceedings.