Hicklin v. Orbeck

The decision limited the kind of preferential treatment that a state can give its own residents when it comes to employment.

The question that was asked in Hicklin v. Orbeck concerned whether a state can require that some kinds of jobs go to state residents before people from other states. It was Alaska's intention to do just that which led several people who were not Alaska residents to file suit against the State Department of Labor in search of an equal chance at jobs working on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.

In 1972, the Alaska Hire statute was passed. The statute basically required that work in Alaska's oil and gas industry go to "qualified Alaska residents" in preference to nonresidents, and that nonresidents be laid off before any resident "working in the same trade or craft" was terminated.