Chief Justice of the Alaska Supreme Court Daniel Winfree will address the full Alaska Legislature in Juneau on Feb. 9 when he delivers the annual “State of the Judiciary” at 11 a.m. in the Alaska House Chamber.
This will be Winfree’s first address to the Legislature since taking over for retired Chief Justice Joel Bolger who stepped down last summer.
Winfree’s speech comes at a time when many Alaskans are upset and frustrated by what they consider to be an activist and left-leaning court.
Over the past few years, Alaska’s high court has issued highly controversial opinions claiming the state cannot enforce witness verification for absentee ballots, the Legislature must ignore a state statute with regard to PFD payments, and the state must publicly fund elective abortions.
Last month, the court issued an opinion that the controversial ranked-choice voting scheme is not unconstitutional and should be followed in the upcoming November election.
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Many Alaskans have argued that the state needs to change the way it appoints judges. Last year the State Senator Mike Shower (R-Wasilla) introduced a proposed constitutional amendment that would require the Legislature to approve all new members selected by the Alaska Bar Association to sit on the Alaska Judicial Council, a powerful seven-member group that decides which applicants a governor can choose from when appointing judges, including those for the Alaska Supreme Court. Shower’s bill is currently sitting in the Senate State Affairs Committee.
Another bill, which directly challenges the Alaska Supreme Court in its insistence that the state pay for elective abortions, is Sen. Shelley Hughes’ (R-Palmer) Senate Joint Resolution 4. It aims to amend the State Constitution by stating: “To protect human life, nothing in this constitution may be construed to secure or protect a right to an abortion or require the State to fund an abortion.” This measure is currently in the Senate Finance Committee.
Click here to watch Chief Justice Winfree’s address at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 9.
3 Comments
All of these worthless pieces of Marxist garbage should be impeached! Our legislooters are fully complicit in not doing so.
With the recalls being undermined in 2021… I don’t trust anything in Alaska anymore.
Tar and Feather the lot and let’s get honest patriots to do the job for We The People and not for their personal agenda or interpretation.
Tar?? Feathers??
Let’s do it!! Amend the state constitution to include term appointments for state house and senate, federal congressional senators and representative. Time to get the amendments in to include the bills that make sense. Include election of judges. What a change this could be for the state.