State, Public Employees' Retirement Board v. Morton

**The Dispute** Morton, a public employee in Alaska, was receiving occupational disability benefits after being injured on the job. The Public Employees' Retirement Board terminated these benefits based on a rule that said if a disabled worker could earn more than 75% of their pre-injury income from other work, they would lose their disability payments. Morton challenged this termination, arguing the rule was unfair and illegal. **The Court's Decision** The Alaska Supreme Court sided with Morton. The court found that the state's 75% income rule violated both state law and the Alaska Constitution. The court determined that this rule was not authorized by the disability benefit statutes and improperly restricted benefits that disabled workers were legally entitled to receive. **What This Means for Workers** This ruling protects disabled public employees in Alaska from having their benefits unfairly cut off. It establishes that employers cannot create arbitrary rules that override workers' legal rights to disability benefits. The decision reinforces that disability benefit programs must follow the actual laws as written, not administrative rules that might reduce workers' protections. This gives disabled workers stronger legal ground to challenge benefit denials that seem to go beyond what the law allows.