Opinion ID: 2640775
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Organization of the Appeals Commission Is Permissible.

Text: AKPIRG implies that the legislature could not validly create a quasi-judicial agency independent of the Board to review Board decisions. The constitution grants the legislature and the executive broad power to organize administrative bodies. [81] We have also recognized that the legislature has constitutional power to allocate executive department functions and duties among the different administrative bodies within state government. [82] In this case, even though the legislature made the Appeals Commission independent of the Board, both of them are within the same executive department, the Department of Labor and Workforce Development. [83] The administrative structure adopted by the legislature for the Appeals Commission is not unique among the states. Minnesota's Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals is an independent agency within the executive branch and by statute is required to maintain its offices in a building separate from the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. [84] The federal government has established independent commissions for administrative adjudication [85] and also has administrative appellate review within an executive department by different sections of the department. [86] While the Appeals Commission may be the first Alaskan administrative agency to have the limited function and structure that it does, we conclude that the organization that the legislature chose does not violate the separation of powers doctrine.