STATE CAPITOL
PO. Box 
Juneau, AK 998ll-000l
907?465?3500

550 West Seventh Avenue, Suite l700
Anchorage, AK 9950 
907?269?7450

 

Governor Michael J. DunleaW
STATE OF ALASKA

March 20, 2019

Alaska Judicial Council
510 Street, Suite 450
Anchorage, AK 99501-1295

Dear Judicial Council Members:

I have selected a candidate to ?ll one of the positions on the Palmer Superior Court from the
three candidates the Council forwarded. I will not be selecting a second candidate from this
truncated list.

For the two positions on the court, the Council received 11 applications. From this ?eld of
candidates, you only nominated three candidates for two positions. After reviewing the list of
nominated and non-nominated candidates, I believe there are quali?ed candidates that the
Council inexplicably did not nominate for this position. In addition, you declined to nominate,
for the Palmer Superior Court, a candidate that you previously nominated for the Anchorage
Superior Court and have currently nominated for the Anchorage District Court. Alaska?s
constitutional judicial selection process is supposed to be merit and quali?cations based. The list
you provided me does not appear to uphold this important standard.

My authority under Article IV, Sections 4 and 5, of the Alaska Constitution to appoint members
to the bench carries with it the obligation to exercise that authority thoughtfully and responsibly.
This is an obligation that we both share. My of?ce has requested more information from the
Council on candidates that were not recommended, including the Council?s reasoning for
excluding some candidates. Thus far you have declined to provide me more information. I would
like an opportunity to review and consider the Council?s reasoning to determine whether
additional quali?ed candidates could be nominated by the Council for this position.

I look forward to working with the Council to ful?ll our joint constitutional obligations.

Sincerely,

Michael J. Dunleavy
Governor