This article was originally published on dermotcole.com.
The nine friendly people chosen by Sen. Dan Sullivan to serve on his so-called “Alaska Federal Judiciary Council” won’t speak with one voice. Some of them will even disagree with him on major issues.
But the council might as well be a product of the Four Seasons Total Landscaping School of Law for all the credibility it starts life with.
Whatever this group is, it doesn’t warrant a trumped-up name like “Alaska Federal Judiciary Council.” The group is to give advice to Sullivan on names of potential federal judges. Sullivan will be free to do whatever he wants with the advice.
That Sen. Lisa Murkowski has all but denounced Sullivan’s creation as a waste of time—in the unique lingo of Murkowski-speak—is all we need to know. She said interviews with “very qualified Alaskans” for the judgeship have taken place and she is ready to move ahead with recommendations.
“My process is now complete,” Murkowski wrote about names to forward to the White House. “Alaskans have waited long enough for the district court to operate at full capacity, and I look forward to the vacancy being filled without further delay.”
Sullivan probably wants a right-wing champion who has no chance of getting a presidential appointment. His Dan Sullivan Council seems like a stalling tactic designed to buy time, perhaps until after the next election.
“The council will begin soliciting applications for this judicial vacancy soon,” says Sullivan.
That would be the start of a long process.
Federal judges are nominated by the president, but the power to reject or confirm judges rests with the Senate.
Under the antiquated rules of that creaky institution, judicial nominations don’t move forward unless both home-state senators are on the same page.
Clearly Sullivan and Murkowski are not on the same page. Again.
Sullivan claims the Dan Sullivan Council was inspired by the Alaska Judicial Council.
Anyone who knows of the Alaska Judicial Council will tell you that this is, to borrow a line from Mark Twain, like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.
The Alaska Judicial Council, created in the Alaska Constitution, is not made up of friendly faces picked by a single senator. There are rules established in law and a clear process to allow different points of view.
I’m not saying that these are all “yes” men and women on the Dan Sullivan Council, but they are people Sullivan is friendly with, including distinguished attorneys like Jo Kuchle of Fairbanks.
Sullivan has assembled a working majority of friends and/or supporters who will either give him what he wants in the way of names of potential right-wing federal judges for Alaska or at least won’t offer candidates that he finds objectionable. In either case, the advice will probably be secret, so the public won’t know.
The group has no authority and it is not independent. It is a creation of one senator, with the other senator saying it is not needed. And Sullivan won’t have to ever say in public just what he does or doesn’t do with the recommendations.
The problems with the Dan Sullivan Council start with him picking his longtime ally, former Gov. Sean Parnell, to serve as chairman.
Parnell is the chancellor of the University of Alaska Anchorage. He should withdraw from Republican Party political activities, such as this one, for as long as he remains one of the highest paid state employees in Alaska.
Parnell and a second former lieutenant governor, Loren Leman, can be counted on to heed Sullivan’s wishes on who would make a great judge for Alaska.
The same is true for a third council pick, Texan Stephen Cox, who has barely had any connection to Alaska and should have no role in giving advice on Alaska judges.
Cox has a long history with the right-wing Federalist Society, Ted Cruz, the Apache Corporation and other Outside interests. He likes to complain about federal overreach.
Cox worked in the Justice Department during the Trump administration as a deputy associate attorney general. For several months at the end of Trump’s term, he was the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas.
Cox is not listed as a member of the Alaska Bar Association, but he has been the general counsel of Bristol Bay Industrial for two years.
His name came up in this 2020 ProPublica investigation about how Trump appointees stopped a potential indictment of Walmart over suspicious opiod prescriptions. Josh Russ, the head of the civil division in the Eastern District of Texas, was ready to file a civil action against Walmart, but Cox claimed the prosecution wasn’t ready and helped block the action, ProPublica said.
“Cox, who had never been a federal prosecutor and joined the agency from Texas energy company Apache, appeared upset that the Texas prosecutors had sought emails between compliance officials and their bosses, senior executives at Walmart. He seemed to view that tactic as overly aggressive, according to a person familiar with the investigation. The Texas prosecutors said they did so to find out what top Walmart executives knew,” ProPublica found.
Russ resigned in 2019, saying the department leadership prevented his office from filing a lawsuit.
Other members of Sullivan’s council include lawyers Jon Katchen and Matt Findley, who Sullivan has described as excellent attorneys and friends.
Katchen was backed by Sullivan for a federal judgeship in 2018, but had to withdraw because of opposition from Alaska. For years, Katchen was an outspoken political defender of Sullivan, calling him a “tireless public servant for our state and country.”
“Jon will make an exceptional jurist who will faithfully apply the law and uphold the Constitution,” Sullivan said, but Katchen later withdrew under political pressure.
In selecting Kim Reitmeier, president of the ANCSA Regional Association, Sullivan tapped another reliable ally. “We are fortunate that he has used his position in the Senate to bring awareness to how truly different Alaska is from the rest of the country,” Reitmeier said in 2020 when she announced her group’s endorsemet of Sullivan.
Another appointee, Christine McLeod Pate, was named one of the Alaskans of the Week by Sullivan in 2018.
“Those who know her just call her wonderful, and I certainly would agree with that,” Sullivan said.
Pate is the legal program director for the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. She was also one of the hundreds of women attorneys in Alaska who asked Murkowski and Sullivan to vote against confirming Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in October 2018.
Jessica Graham, an Anchorage attorney, defended Sullivan in 2017 on general principles, following this highly critical assessment by Shannyn Moore.
“I’ve known Sullivan for a long time, and I disagree with him on multiple policy issues. He is conservative. I’m not. But I am grateful that Sullivan is able to articulate his principles consistently and thoughtfully. No one can accuse him of being wishy-washy or saying different things to different audiences,” Graham said.
Graham also signed the letter opposing Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court.
Do we need a better way of getting people to apply to be federal judges? Perhaps. But it is not a better way to have a single senator select only those he wants to give him advice and to allow him to accept or reject the advice. Stop the stall.
Your contributions help support independent analysis and political commentary by Alaska reporter and author Dermot Cole. Thank you for reading and for your support. Either click here to use PayPal or send checks to: Dermot Cole, Box 10673, Fairbanks, AK 99710-0673.
Dermot Cole has worked as a newspaper reporter, columnist and author in Alaska for more than 40 years. Support his work here.