Dive Brief:

• According to Ed Source, the California Teachers Association is likely to gain a temporary win, via tie, in its Supreme Court case over the right to require teachers to pay costs of collective bargaining in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association.
• At stake is the mandate set by the Abood v. Detroit Board of Education case, a 40-year-old Supreme Court decision that allowed states to require public employees to split the expenses of bargaining fees.
• A decision for the case is expected in June, but the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, who was expected to help overturn existing precedent, will likely result in a tie that would hold the case up in appeals court with more legal wrangling for years to come. 

Dive Insight:

Much rests on whether President Barack Obama will be able to appoint a new judge to replace Scalia without indefinite political blocking by Congressional Republicans, who have declared their intent to block any efforts to do so.

This week, the Supreme Court also made another education-related decision, declining to hear a Mississippi high school student's appeal related to a previous lower court ruling on a rap song with violent lyrics about teachers and the First Amendment. The order in Bell v. Itawamba County School Board was the first made since Scalia's passing. 

Other potential cases related to education that were also declined include: Kucera v. Jefferson County Board of School Commissioners, a case related to the constitutionality of a Tennessee district outsourcing an alternative ed program to a private Christian school;  Burgos v. New Jersey and New Jersey Education Association v. New Jersey, related to whether the state had to alter contributions to pensions for teachers and others; and a case related to a voucher program in Colorado.