OPINION: Will Alaska’s politicized Supreme Court rule on its own behalf?
The Alaska Supreme Court made headlines again when the Anchorage Daily News published a report showing Chief Justice Joel Bolger appealing to the Alaska Federation of Natives for help in the Court’s ongoing budgetary dispute with Governor Mike Dunleavy. At
OPINION: Activist judges rule supreme because we let them
The “hierarchy of law” is an ancient concept that some laws are more important than others. In our rancorous and increasingly nonsensical political climate, everyone accepts this idea. Just which laws are more important than others, however, is where the
On the duty to ‘legislate morality’ in Alaska
On October 1, voters in Fairbanks and North Pole spoke fairly clearly about the direction they think their communities should be headed regarding civil government and school leadership. Former Fairbanks North Star Borough Assemblyman Lance Roberts called the
Personal feelings cannot be a shared foundation for law
I watched the lawsuit and litigation play out this summer between the City of Anchorage and the Downtown Hope Center. The entire incident leading to the lawsuit would be great satirical fodder for the pages of The Onion, but it very much happened. Were it a
Why are there so many angry young men?
The recent trial that just convicted the third young Alaskan in the 2016 murder of Palmer teen David Grundwald is evidence of a larger phenomenon wreaking havoc across our country. Nationwide 21 deadly mass shootings killed a total of 124 people in the first
OPINION: Alaska unions need to scrap radical political activism
“Dunleavy’s attack on unions is an attack on all Alaskans,” or so read the Sept. 29 headline of an Anchorage Daily News commentary piece by union leader Jake Metcalfe, the executive director of the Alaska State Employees Association. The column was in
OPINION: Dunleavy’s move is needed first step to correcting Alaska’s courts
As everyone knows, there are three co-equal branches to government: legislative, executive and judicial. Except they’re not. As in co-equal. Understanding correct constitutional principles is about as rare as finding an uncut diamond while walking the
OPINION: Can Alaska’s Supreme Court decide the limits of its own power?
The great 2019 Alaska budget war has seen deep spending cuts by Governor Mike Dunleavy through his line item budget vetoes. Many “sacred cows” have been gored, and there are howls of disapproval from beneficiaries of state spending. Oddly, one of the most
ANALYSIS: ‘Dangerous’ proposal violates Alaska lawyers’ freedom of speech and religious liberty
In 2016, the US Supreme Court invalidated all state laws limiting marriage to persons of the opposite sex. The sexual revolution, thus endorsed by the Court, inverted the universal human culture on marriage and proper sexual relations. As the issue of
On Gun Violence
The problem with the internet is that everyone gets a megaphone to shout, or re-shout, endless things that just aren’t true. Gun violence is terrible. Period. Mass shootings are terrible. Period. However, guns are not the problem any more than cars are
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