Law Commons^™

The Road Goes Ever On And On: A Path Through The Wilderness On R.S. 2477 Litigation In Alaska, Michelle Jackson

Alaska Law Review

Seeking to encourage people to settle the public domain, the federal government established the R.S. 2477 right of way, a grant to construct highways over land in the public domain. There are now thousands of miles of highway across the Western United States constructed pursuant to the authority in R.S. 2477, but most of these rights of way were never documented by any formal process. Alaska has made it a priority to document existing R.S. 2477 rights of way in an effort to manage and develop public lands. Identifying existing R.S. 2477 rights of way is essential for economic development, …

The Impact Of Sturgeon Ii On Alaska Subsistence Management: A Chance For Peace In The Jurisdiction Wars, Craig Jones

Alaska Law Review

In Sturgeon v. Frost, the Supreme Court addressed the status of navigable waters in Alaska’s conservation system units. In holding that these waters are not “public lands” for the purposes of ANILCA, the Court limited the ability of the federal government to regulate them. In a footnote, Sturgeon preserved the longstanding Katie John trilogy of Ninth Circuit precedent regarding subsistence rights. This new jurisdictional framework has the potential to cause problems for subsistence management in Alaska. This Note addresses these potential consequences and proposes possible steps to create a more harmonized subsistence management system through greater cooperation between the federal …

Journal Staff

Alaska Law Review

No abstract provided.

Note From The Editor

Alaska Law Review

No abstract provided.

Alaska’S Constitution And Felony Disenfranchisement: A Historical And Legal Analysis, Jc Croft

Alaska Law Review

A disproportionately high segment of Alaska’s incarcerated population is non-white, placing many of these citizens under the purview of the state’s felony disenfranchisement statute. This Article argues that the Alaska legislature has impermissibly broadened the scope of the felony disenfranchisement provision over time. This provision, expressly included in the Alaska Constitution and specifically debated during the convention, permits the revocation of voting rights for a person convicted of a felony involving “moral turpitude.” Rather than leave the definition of this provision to the courts, the Alaska legislature has toyed repeatedly with identifying the crimes that involve moral turpitude. Not only …

A Better Kind Of Frozen Food: Using State And Federal Law To Bring School Farming And Other Community Agriculture To Rural Alaska Communities, Charles Kidd

Alaska Law Review

Despite a seeming abundance of nourishment in the state, with folklore of Alaska rivers so full of salmon that one can walk across to the opposite shore without getting one’s feet wet, Alaska is a very food-insecure state. As of 2014, 15% of Alaskans were found to be food insecure. This rate is part of an increasing trend; from 1998 to 2007, food insecurity increased to 3.7% in Alaska, the largest increase in the country. Further, because only 5% of the food consumed in Alaska is actually produced in-state, there is typically only a three to five-day supply of food …

Subsistence & Sturgeon: Federal Enforcement On Alaska’S Rivers, Elliot Louthen

Alaska Law Review

In March 2019, the United States Supreme Court decided Sturgeon v. Frost , unanimously holding navigable waters within Alaska’s national parks are exempt from the Park Service’s normal regulatory authority. The result of the Court’s holding has stifled federal law enforcement in Alaska. An overly cautious interpretation of Sturgeon could jeopardize federal enforcement in its entirety on the thousands of miles of navigable rivers in Alaska. However, considered in the broader context of the history of Alaskan subsistence rights and corresponding jurisprudence, there is ample legal footing in the Sturgeon opinion to provide federal law enforcement personnel with authority to …

Journal Staff

Alaska Law Review

No abstract provided.

Protecting Passenger Fees: Reawakening Congress’S Tonnage Clause Authorization Powers, Bradley Russian

Alaska Law Review

For 20 years, the City of Juneau has collected passenger fees from cruise lines that enter its port. These fees are assessed based on the number of passengers that arrive on each cruise vessel, and amount to $8.00 per passenger. On December 6, 2018, in Cruise Lines International Association Alaska v. The City and Borough of Juneau , the U.S. District Court of Alaska held that Juneau’s use of the passenger fees violates the U.S. Constitution’s Tonnage Clause. Rather than appeal the decision, the City of Juneau subsequently settled the litigation with the cruise lines. This Note will examine Juneau’s …

“Actual” And “Constructive” Possession In Alaska: Clarifying The Doctrine, Chad Flanders

Alaska Law Review

In two cases, one recent and one now nearly a decade old, Judge David Mannheimer has raised important questions about Alaska’s jury instruction on “possession.” In particular, Judge Mannheimer has expressed a worry that Alaska’s definition of “constructive possession” invites juries to find possession where the defendant is only near an object and has knowledge of its presence. As Judge Mannheimer correctly points out, such a definition is too expansive. But how can we avoid this problem?

My short article takes Judge Mannheimer’s opinions in Alex v. State and Dirks v. State as the starting point for an investigation of …

Pathway To Permanency: Enact A State Statute Formally Recognizing Indian Custodianship As An Approved Path To Ending A Child In Need Of Aid Case, Courtney Lewis

Alaska Law Review

Alaska has a disproportionate number of Alaska Native youth in foster care, and an overburdened and understaffed state child welfare agency. This Article argues that Alaska should enact a state statute to provide clear guidance to state child welfare practitioners and state courts that Alaska’s state government recognizes an Indian custodianship created through Tribal law or custom as a pathway for Indian children to exit the overburdened state foster care system. Alaska’s state government has progressed from initially refusing to recognize Tribal family law to recognizing a Tribal adoption as a pathway for an Indian child to exit the state …

Hunt V. Kenai Peninsula Borough: The Search For Clarity In Legislative Prayer Speaker Selection, Charles Truslow, Craig Jones

Alaska Law Review

In 2016, three residents of the Kenai Peninsula Borough were prevented from delivering an invocation at a Borough Assembly meeting because they were neither borough chaplains nor members of a qualifying religious association. These three residents sued the borough, claiming that the Borough Assembly’s speaker selection policy violated the Alaska Constitution’s Establishment Clause. The superior court ruled for the plaintiffs, holding that the selection policy constituted a step towards the establishment of a state religion. Applying Supreme Court precedent, the superior court reached the correct result. However, the limited amount of federal precedent on the principles guiding speaker selection policies …

Note From The Editor

Alaska Law Review

No abstract provided.

Caught Between Superpowers:Alaska’S Economic Relationship With China Amidst The New Cold War, Sam Karson

Alaska Law Review

In recent years, Alaska has developed an increasingly robust economic relationship with China. China is the largest foreign buyer of Alaskan goods and China continues to invest in Alaska and promote Alaskan tourism. Meanwhile, the U.S. federal government’s relationship with China has deteriorated over concerns that China poses a danger to U.S. national security. As the U.S. federal government continues to scrutinize Chinese investment and trade with the United States, Alaska’s economic relationship with China increasingly hangs in the balance. Alaska’s relationship with China thus joins a long history of economic ties between states and foreign nations that pose conflicts …

League Of Conservation Voters V. Trump: A Potential Blueprint To Challenging Environmental Policy Rollbacks, Nick Buchta, Quentin Jorgensen

Alaska Law Review

This Comment examines the recently rejected motion to dismiss in League of Conservation Voters v. Trump and its potential to serve as a roadmap for environmental organizations seeking to challenge regulatory rollbacks by the Trump administration. In 2017, President Donald Trump issued an executive order reversing the designation of 128 million acres of ocean as protected from oil and gas leasing. The League of Conservation Voters, along with other environmental activists, sued to enjoin the rollback, and administration officials subsequently filed a motion to dismiss. This Comment focuses on the issue of Article III standing in the case, wherein the …