In Alaska, the grand jury was meant to be the People’s watchdog – a constitutional guarantee that ordinary citizens could investigate matters of public welfare and safety.

Article I, Section 8 of our Constitution says it plainly: “The power of grand juries to investigate and make recommendations concerning the public welfare or safety shall never be suspended.”

Yet over the last three years, that guarantee has been chipped away by a combination of court orders and executive practice. The result is a system where citizens are no longer free to present matters directly to a grand jury. Instead, their petitions must pass through the Attorney General’s office first.

This gatekeeping role is not speculation. It was admitted in plain words by Attorney General Treg Taylor himself.

From Court Orders to Portals

In December 2022, the Alaska Supreme Court adopted Supreme Court Order 1993. For the first time, citizens were told they had to direct their investigative grand jury requests to the Attorney General or a designee. It was up to that office to decide if the request was “valid and appropriate.”

A year later, SCO 2000 reinforced the process with additional amendments. Then, in August 2025, the Department of Law rolled out an online “portal” and FAQ page, instructing citizens to submit petitions electronically – straight to the Attorney General’s office.

At a Soldotna town hall on August 18, the portal was presented as a helpful innovation. The truth, however, is that it formalized an executive branch chokepoint.

But convenience has never been the measure of constitutional rights. The People’s watchdog power was designed to be inconvenient to government – a safeguard against abuse of power.

‘I Am the Gatekeeper’

Just two days later, in a Must Read Alaska interview with Rep. Ben Carpenter, then-Attorney Gen. Treg Taylor left no doubt:

“It comes to my office,” he said. “I am the gatekeeper, whether I like it or not … I intend to be a very poor gatekeeper.”

Taylor acknowledged that citizen requests no longer reach a grand jury unless the Attorney General allows them to pass. He dressed this up as being a “poor” gatekeeper – one who lets things through – but the very existence of a gatekeeper contradicts the constitutional promise that the power of the grand jury “shall never be suspended.”

Taylor went further, arguing that the Constitution doesn’t speak of “individuals coming before grand juries,” only of the grand juries’ power. That’s a convenient reading for an executive officer who now controls the flow of citizen petitions. But it ignores the obvious: if the people cannot get their concerns to the grand jury without executive permission, the grand jury’s power is suspended in practice.

Convenience vs. Constitution

Taylor defended the portal on grounds of convenience. Without it, he warned, the process could be “chaotic” and eat up too many man-hours for his prosecutors and the jurors themselves.

But convenience has never been the measure of constitutional rights. The People’s watchdog power was designed to be inconvenient to government – a safeguard against abuse of power. To reduce it to an intake form that lands on the Attorney General’s desk is to neuter the independence the framers guaranteed.

Political Timing

The timing adds another layer. On August 18, the portal was unveiled. On August 20, Taylor admitted to being the gatekeeper in a widely distributed interview. And on August 21, he announced his resignation as Attorney General to pursue the governor’s office.

The portal rollout was not just an administrative change. It was a political act, one that framed Taylor as a reformer while leaving intact the very gatekeeping system that undermines Alaskans’ constitutional rights.

The Way Forward

The solution is not complicated. The courts or the State Legislature must restore direct citizen presentment to investigative grand juries. Safeguards can be built in to prevent abuse – limits on duplicate filings, neutral triage procedures, or timelines for review. But those safeguards must not place the executive branch in control of who gets heard.

The framers of our Constitution were clear: the power of grand juries to investigate matters of public welfare “shall never be suspended.” It is time to honor that promise.

The views expressed here are those of the author.

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