High Court rejects airlines’ petition in meal and rest break case

Airlines for America said “a patchwork of costly and conflicting state regulations” will hamstring aviation operations after the US Supreme Court denied review of a ruling that Alaska Airlines must comply with California’s meal and rest break requirements and dismissal of a separate lawsuit brought by A4A in a Washington state case, rejecting airlines’ argument that federal airline law preempted meal and rest break laws. “We expect that other cases involving state meal-and-rest-break laws will present the US Supreme Court with similar legal questions,” A4A said in a statement, and “it will be increasingly clear that these laws affect airlines’ prices, routes and services and should be preempted.”