Alaska Employment Law

We earlier blogged about the Alaska statute that lightly regulates employer rules on bringing guns to work.  See AS 18.65.800(d).  Following the U. S. Supreme Court’s 2nd Amendment opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller, 2008 WL 2520816 (U. S. June 16, 2008), there’s been a steady trickle of challenges to gun laws, including laws that restrict gun possession on work premises.  The latest arises in the context of a Postal Service rule that bars employee possession of guns in certain restricted and non-public parking areas.  

In the Postal Service case, the U. S. Magistrate rejected the employee’s argument that his car was an extension of his home:

The Court has considered defense counsel’s argument that Dorosan’s vehicle is an extension of his home; however, that result obtains only when the vehicle is not parked on postal property where access is restricted. In this case, the restricted employee parking and loading area where Dorosan parked his vehicle during his shift bears signs that advise all who enter the gates, as follows: [omitted]

An area, such as the Gretna Post Office’s employee parking lot, which bears warnings the likes of that aforestated can hardly be analogized to “home sweet home” or an extension of same. By the same token, privately owned vehicles parked on such “postal property” cannot be reasonably be considered an extension of home. The “postal property” at issue more closely approximates one of those “sensitive places” excepted by the Supreme Court in Heller, the Court’s latest opinion addressing the Second Amendment “right to bear arms.”

See the Volokh Conspiracy for more on the Post Office case. 

I’m not aware of any challenges to AS 18.65.800.