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Note From The Editor, Iuniki L. Ikahihifo-Bender
Note From The Editor, Iuniki L. Ikahihifo-Bender
Alaska Law Review
No abstract provided.
From Accession To Exemption: A Brief History Of The Development Of Alaska Property Exemption Laws, Eric H. Miller
From Accession To Exemption: A Brief History Of The Development Of Alaska Property Exemption Laws, Eric H. Miller
Alaska Law Review
This Article examines the historical development of Alaska's debtor protections from their beginnings in the period of initial federal administration to the present. The current Alaska statutes protecting certain property of debtors from their creditors descended from policies first enacted by Congress. Although federal authority began in 1867 with the area's acquisition from Russia, Congress did not provide for governmental administration in Alaska until 1884, which act also provided Alaska its first debtor protection statutes. Extension of the federal Homestead Act to Alaska in 1898 brought the first protections for settlers' homesteads from their creditors. By 1912 and the creation …
"A System Appallingly Out Of Balance": Morgan V. State And The Rights Of Defendants And Victims In Sexual Assault Prosecutions, Daniel E. Doty
"A System Appallingly Out Of Balance": Morgan V. State And The Rights Of Defendants And Victims In Sexual Assault Prosecutions, Daniel E. Doty
Alaska Law Review
In a series of three cases that culminate with Morgan v. State, Alaska's courts established a unique protection for defendants in sexual assault cases. This protection, which allows such defendants to attack their victims in court with previous reports of sexual assault that did not result in prosecution, is not afforded to defendants in other cases and is based on a dubious "general principle" that the credibility of sexual assault victims has "special relevance." The protection is problematic in several ways: it is grounded in erroneous stereotypes about the victims of sex crimes; it is detrimental to victims and …
Breaking Bad Law: Meth Lab Investigations Highlight Alaska's Current Approach To Privacy, Victoria Sheets
Breaking Bad Law: Meth Lab Investigations Highlight Alaska's Current Approach To Privacy, Victoria Sheets
Alaska Law Review
The right to privacy explicitly provided by the Alaska Constitution has long been broadly interpreted—even protecting Alaskan citizens' right to personal home use and possession of marijuana. Though this right to privacy has been interpreted many times over the last few decades, Alaska currently lacks a coherent approach to application of its privacy laws. As the prevalence of methamphetamine production increases in homes across Alaska, the Alaskan courts' approach to privacy must be reevaluated in light of its delicate interaction with search and seizure policies surrounding methamphetamine labs.
Alaska And Vergara V. California: Evaluating The Constitutionality Of Teacher Tenure In Alaska, M. Rebecca Cooper
Alaska And Vergara V. California: Evaluating The Constitutionality Of Teacher Tenure In Alaska, M. Rebecca Cooper
Alaska Law Review
In the summer of 2013, California's teacher tenure statutes were found to violate the equal protection clause of the state's Constitution. The statutes called for tenure to be granted after two years of teaching, contained significant due process protections in case of dismissal, and required that new hires be laid off before teachers with tenure. The group that brought the lawsuit, Students Matter, is considering filing lawsuits in other states. This Note examines Alaska's tenure statutes to assess the state's vulnerability to a copycat lawsuit. While most of Alaska's tenure statutes seem safe from challenge, the state should evaluate its …
Ravin Revisited: Alaska's Historic Common Law Marijuana Rule At The Dawn Of Legalization, Jason Brandeis
Ravin Revisited: Alaska's Historic Common Law Marijuana Rule At The Dawn Of Legalization, Jason Brandeis
Alaska Law Review
For the past forty years, Alaska has had one of the most unique marijuana laws in the United States. Under the Ravin Doctrine, adults in Alaska could use and possess a small amount of marijuana in their homes for any personal purpose. That common law rule, grounded in the Alaska Constitution's explicit right of privacy, was effectively codified in November 2014 when Alaska voters approved Ballot Measure 2: "An act to tax and regulate the production, sale, and use of marijuana." Measure 2 ushered in a new era of marijuana regulation, adding Alaska to the short list of states that …
Alaska: North To The Future Of Federal Marijuana Regulation, Angela Macdonald
Alaska: North To The Future Of Federal Marijuana Regulation, Angela Macdonald
Alaska Law Review
The personal freedom Alaskans not only expect, but rely upon, exposes a significant need for federal cooperation in the reformation of marijuana laws, including the removal or reclassification of marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act. This Comment summarizes this issue in light of Alaska’s recent recreational marijuana legalization. In doing so, elements unique to Alaska and their likely influence on the state's upcoming marijuana legislation; the history and evolution of Alaska marijuana laws; and the scholarly literature on Alaska marijuana law regarding the tensions between federal and state marijuana regulation are discussed. This Comment proposes that marijuana be removed from …
Summary Judgment In Alaska, Grady R. Campion
Summary Judgment In Alaska, Grady R. Campion
Alaska Law Review
In modern civil litigation, disputes rarely proceed to trial. Summary judgment has evolved in state and federal courts across the country as a common mechanism for dispute resolution without trial. Alaska courts have largely refused to follow this trend. Instead, obtaining summary judgment in Alaska represents a nearly impossible challenge. Alaska’s heightened summary judgment standard reflects a past era—one in which advocacy occurred in a courtroom before a jury and not in chambers on paper. This Note analyzes the evolution of summary judgment in federal courts and in Alaska and discusses three procedural mechanisms affecting summary judgment in Alaska. After …
Note From The Editor, Philip A. Tarpley
Guilty But Mentally Ill: The Ethical Dilemma Of Mental Illness As A Tool Of The Prosecution, Lauren G. Johansen
Guilty But Mentally Ill: The Ethical Dilemma Of Mental Illness As A Tool Of The Prosecution, Lauren G. Johansen
Alaska Law Review
While other jurisdictions use guilty but mentally ill as a compromise verdict to fill the gap between guilty by reason of insanity and a guilty verdict after an unsuccessful insanity defense, Alaska has transformed the status into a prosecutorial tool to keep mentally ill defendants incarcerated for longer than their mentally sane counterparts through denial of “good time” credit. Although Blakely was used—correctly—to prevent the denial of the mentally ill their Sixth Amendment right to a trial by jury and proof beyond a reasonable doubt in December 2013’s State v. Clifton, the court of appeals eliminated any utility from …
Admissibility Of Battered-Spouse-Syndrome Evidence In Alaska, Morgan Abbott
Admissibility Of Battered-Spouse-Syndrome Evidence In Alaska, Morgan Abbott
Alaska Law Review
Despite the exceptionally high rates of domestic violence in Alaska, Alaskan jurisprudence affords battered women varied and sparse guidance for the use of their experience as a battered woman in criminal trials. Of the minimal guidance offered, none arises in the form of a binding Alaska Supreme Court opinion, rule of evidence, or governing statute. As one of the few states lacking established jurisprudence on evidence of battered spouse syndrome, Alaska would benefit from a clearer rule regarding the admissibility of battered-spouse-syndrome evidence. This rule would interpret “reasonableness” to include a “reasonable battered woman” standard when the relevant party was …
The Doctrine In The Shadows: Reverse-Erie, Its Cases, Its Theories, And Its Future With Plausibility Pleading In Alaska, Philip A. Tarpley
The Doctrine In The Shadows: Reverse-Erie, Its Cases, Its Theories, And Its Future With Plausibility Pleading In Alaska, Philip A. Tarpley
Alaska Law Review
In 2007 and 2009, respectively, the United States Supreme Court decided Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, abrogated Conley v. Gibson’s notice pleading standard, and imposed a new plausibility pleading standard upon the federal court system. Alaska, along with a majority of states however, still retains Conley’s “no set of facts” notice pleading standard. This Note asks, in light of the difference between the federal and Alaska pleading standards, whether Alaska—or any state—could be forced to apply the federal pleading standard when it adjudicates federal substantive claims. Prior to Iqbal, a plaintiff in Alaska …
Whatever Happened To The Seveloff Fix?, Andy Harrington
Whatever Happened To The Seveloff Fix?, Andy Harrington
Alaska Law Review
This Article suggests that the Supreme Court has not deprived Alaska Native Villages of a valid basis for claiming the authority to create and enforce their own tribal alcohol regulations. Every federally recognized Alaskan Native Village is situated in an area over which Congress extended the federal Indian liquor laws in 1873, in an enactment Congress has never repealed; this should logically empower Alaska Native Villages to exercise the same federally-delegated authority within their federal Indian liquor law Indian country as lower-48 tribes have within their reservations or “dependent Indian communities.” Since this delegated authority is shared with the states, …
Advancing Tribal Court Criminal Jurisdiction In Alaska, Ryan Fortson
Advancing Tribal Court Criminal Jurisdiction In Alaska, Ryan Fortson
Alaska Law Review
Extensive case law already exists in Alaska on the jurisdiction of tribal courts over domestic relations cases, with one of the seminal cases—John v. Baker—establishing that Alaska tribes have jurisdiction even in the absence of Indian country. A common assumption, though, is that Alaska tribes do not have jurisdiction over criminal offenses. This Article argues that both under the logic of John v. Baker and the development of Indian law in the Lower 48, Alaska tribes already possess inherent jurisdiction over criminal offenses within their Native villages. With the gamut of social challenges facing Alaska Natives in rural …