Opinion ID: 176296
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Heading: alaska's merit selection system

Text: Alaska's Constitution and statutes establish a merit selection system for appointing state judges. The system was adopted, after extensive debate, at the Constitutional Convention in 1955, when Alaska was still a territory. See generally Alaska Constitutional Convention Minutes (ACCM), Days 32 and 35 (Dec. 9 and 12, 1955), available at http://www.law.state.ak. us/doclibrary/cc_minutes.html. The Alaska Constitution was ratified by Alaska's voters and approved by Congress, which found it to be republican in form and in conformity with the Constitution of the United States and the principles of the Declaration of Independence. Alaska Statehood Act, Pub.L. No. 85-508, § 1, 72 Stat. 339, 339 (1958). The system in the Alaska Constitution is based on the Missouri Plan, developed in Missouri in the 1940s and later adopted in whole or in part by 33 states and Washington, D.C. Although there is no uniform approach to merit-based selection, there are characteristics common to the systems utilized by Alaska and other states. These characteristics include, among others: vesting responsibility for screening applicants and recommending candidates in an independent, non-partisan or bi-partisan nominating commission; specifying that the nominating commission be composed of both lay people and lawyers; and requiring the Governor to make an appointment from a list of nominees submitted by the commission. The Alaska Constitution prescribes judicial selection for the constitutionally created courts: the Alaska Supreme Court and the Alaska Superior Court, which is the trial court of general jurisdiction for the State. Alaska Const. art. IV, §§ 1-8. The Alaska legislature, by statute, adopted the same selection procedures for the judges of Alaska's other state courts. Alaska Stat. §§ 22.07.070, 22.15.170(a), (e). The system requires the Governor to appoint each judge from a list of applicants nominated as most qualified by an independent constitutional body, the Alaska Judicial Council (Judicial Council or Council). Alaska Const. art. IV, § 5. The Council consists of the Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice, three citizens appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Legislature, and three attorneys appointed by the Board of Governors of the Alaska Bar Association. Alaska Const. art. IV, § 8. The Constitution describes the organization of the Judicial Council as follows: The judicial council shall consist of seven members. Three attorney members shall be appointed for six-year terms by the governing body of the organized state bar. Three non-attorney members shall be appointed for six-year terms by the governor subject to confirmation by a majority of the members of the legislature in joint session. Vacancies shall be filled for the unexpired term in like manner. Appointments shall be made with due consideration to area representation and without regard to political affiliation. The chief justice of the supreme court shall be ex-officio the seventh member and chairman of the judicial council. No member of the judicial council, except the chief justice, may hold any other office or position of profit under the United States or the State. The judicial council shall act by concurrence of four or more members and according to rules which it adopts. Id. The Alaska Bar Association's Board of Governors is the governing body of the organized state bar and is responsible for appointing three of the seven members of the Judicial Council. See Alaska Stat. § 08.08.030 (The Alaska Bar is governed by the Board of Governors of the Alaska Bar.); Alaska Const. art. IV, § 8 (delegating to Board of Governors the power to appoint three members of the Judicial Council). The Board of Governors consists of three non-attorney citizens appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Legislature, and nine attorneys elected by the active members of the Bar Association. Alaska Stat. §§ 08.08.040(b); 08.08.050(a). In order to practice law in Alaska, an attorney must be a member of the Bar. Id. § 08.08.020(a). Only active Bar members are eligible to vote for the nine attorney members of the Board of Governors. Alaska Stat. § 08.08.040; Alaska Bar Bylaws art. IV, § 2. Active members of the Bar have passed a bar examination, paid their dues, and met the Bar Association's standard of character and fitness. Alaska Bar Rules 2, 5. Alaska's statehood founders explicitly debated this structure at the State's Constitutional Convention. See ACCM, Days 32 and 35 (Dec. 9 and 12, 1955). At the convention, the chair of the Committee on the Judiciary Branch, George McLaughlin, explained to the convention delegates that judicial independence suffers when judges are elected, and that an appointive system would prevent the state judiciary from being controlled by a political machine. ACCM, Day 32 (Dec. 9, 1955). McLaughlin also explained the importance of having attorney members on the Judicial Council, because they are knowledgeable about the strengths and weaknesses of fellow attorneys with whom they work: The whole theory of the Missouri Plan is that in substance, a select and professional group, licensed by the state, can best determine the qualifications of their brothers. The intent of the Missouri Plan was in substance to give a predominance of the vote to professional men who knew the foibles, the defects and the qualifications of their brothers. It is unquestionably true that in every trade and every profession the men who know their brother careerists the best are the men engaged in the same type of occupation. That was the theory of the Missouri Plan. The theory was that the bar association would attempt to select the best men possible for the bench because they had to work under them. ACCM, Day 35 (Dec. 12, 1955). McLaughlin also explained the importance of having the Bar Association, rather than the Governor, appoint the attorney representatives, because they represent no outside interests: The three who are appointed by the bar... are there, based solely on their professional qualifications but selected because they would represent in theory the best thinking of the bar, and they are there solely because they represent their craft. Id. He described the involvement of the state bar association in the selection of the attorney members as the very essence of the Missouri Plan. Id. Another delegate proposed an amendment that would have required legislative confirmation of the attorney members of the Council. Id. Delegate McLaughlin spoke against the proposal, arguing that the members should not have to be acceptable politically: [I]f this motion is passed you might as well tear up the whole proposal and provide for the election of juries, because then it would be more efficacious and more democratic.... If you require a confirmation of your attorney members you can promptly see what will happen. The selection is not then made by the organized bar on the basis of a man's professional qualifications alone. The determination of the selection of those people who are on the judicial council will be qualified by the condition, are they acceptable to a house and a senate or a senate alone, which is essentially Democratic or essentially Republican.... If political correctness enters into the determination of those professional members who are to be placed upon the judicial council, the whole system goes out the window. Id. Delegate Ralph Rivers concurred: I want to heartily second the remarks of Mr. McLaughlin but also want to point out that the purpose of the draft as now written is to have a nonpartisan selection of these lawyer members, and the minute you adopt something like this, you are making a partisanship proposition out of it. We want to carry through to a nonpartisan selection of judges.... Id. The proposal to require legislative confirmation of the lawyers appointed to the Judicial Council failed by a vote of 49 nays to four yeas, with two absent. Id. Alaska has followed the judicial selection system adopted at the Constitutional Convention for over 50 years. Every judge who has been appointed since statehood has been appointed by the Governor from the list of people nominated by the Judicial Council. In practice, the judicial selection process begins when the Judicial Council receives notice that a vacancy exists or is about to occur. The Council then begins seeking applicants for the open position by issuing notification of the vacancy to the public and the Alaska Bar Association. The Council's screening process involves an application form and a comprehensive investigation into the applicant's education, employment, credit, and criminal records. The Judicial Council solicits information from references, and interviews all applicants. The public is invited to comment on applicants by letter or email, and the Council holds a public hearing to receive testimony. After reviewing the information gathered, the Council meets to vote for the candidates who will be sent to the Governor as nominees. Any action of the Council to recommend a candidate requires the concurrence of four or more members, Alaska Const. art. IV, § 5, and the Council must recommend at least two candidates for any vacant position, id. art. IV, § 8. The Governor must appoint one of the Council's nominees within 45 days of receiving the nominations. Alaska Stat. § 22.05.080(a). The Governor is bound by the nominees presented to him; the Governor may neither select a person other than those nominated, nor ask the Council for additional nominations. See Alaska Const. art. IV, § 5. Once a judge is nominated by the Judicial Council and appointed by the Governor, the judge is subject to a non-partisan retention election at the first general election held more than three years after appointment. Id. art. IV, § 5.