Sullivan stalls for 2.5 years on filling federal judgeship in Alaska

It’s been eight months since Sen. Dan Sullivan announced his hand-picked “council of Alaskans to improve federal judicial selection.”

I said at the time it was nothing but a delaying tactic by Sullivan. And that’s exactly what it has turned out to be.

Sullivan and his office have had absolutely nothing to say about the Dan Sullivan committee to select right-wing judges since it was launched last fall.

The Alaska federal judgeship, one of three in the state, has been vacant for nearly 2.5 years because of senatorial stalling. There is no nominee from the Biden administration because of Sullivan.

Sullivan split with Sen. Lisa Murkowski over acceptable nominees to forward to the White House last summer. Murkowski did interviews with candidates and was ready to move ahead, but Sullivan wanted a more right-wing jurist. He didn’t say that in public, of course.

Sullivan created this much-ballyhooed front group to give the appearance of an official process that would lead somewhere.

Amanda Coyne, the former Alaska reporter who became a Sullivan speechwriter, was named the organizer for the Dan Sullivan judge council.

The members were told by Sullivan’s office that they were prohibited from speaking about their activities.

Coyne, Sullivan’s communications director, has refused to respond to multiple inquiries over many months about what the group did, if anything.

One reason she and Sullivan can get away with this is that Alaska news organizations have not covered this issue. And there has been no public pressure on Sullivan.

I published Coyne’s replies to numerous questions about this situation on November 8, 2023, but it was silence from Sullivan after that.

A reader told me that the questions I should have asked included these: “The larger story here isn’t about who is the best judicial nominee and how do the senators figure that out. The big story is why is the Alaska delegation so dysfunctional? Why do two Republican Senators from the same state barely talk to one another and impede one another’s work and efforts?”

All good questions that remain unanswered.

The Sullivan plan is to keep stalling and hoping that Donald Trump will be elected in the fall and that Sullivan can get Murkowski to sign off on a right-wing candidate in 2025. Sullivan won’t say that in public.

“The Senator and the council will move expeditiously and he intends to improve upon the lengthy timeline—more than four years—that occurred last time there was a vacancy on the U.S. District Court for Alaska,” Coyne said six months ago.

On Sullivan’s list of questions for potential judges, he asked that candidates name their favorite judge and their favorite U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Other questions asked applicants to describe cases etched in their memories that “could in good faith be considered controversial” and to name the “most significant” legal matters of their careers. Every case can in good faith be considered controversial and every case is the most significant to the client in court.

A year ago the Alaska Bar Association wrote about the long delay in filling the vacancy created when Judge Timothy Burgess retired. Murkowski asked the bar association to submit a list of qualified candidates and recommendations.

The top four candidates in the bar poll were Anchorage Superior Court Judge Yvonne Lamoureux, U.S. Attorney S. Lane Tucker, Stoel Rives partner Tina Grovier, and Alaska Solicitor General Tamara DeLucia. 

Murkowski conducted interviews and tried to get names to the White House. “Alaskans have waited long enough for the district court to operate at full capacity, and I look forward to the vacancy being filled without further delay,” Murkowski said nearly eight months ago.

The Senate, by tradition that should have been abandoned long ago, allows a single home-state senator to block federal judicial nominations.

The Alaska vacancy is one of 30 empty federal judgeships nationwide for which there are no nominees.

“These will be big shoes to fill — but this now begins the process for filling this important vacancy,” Murkowski said on October 26. 2021 when Burgess announced plans to go on “senior status.”

This column I wrote on December 4, 2023 is unfortunately still true today:

Sen. Dan Sullivan’s office won’t say how many people have applied to the new secret Sullivan federal judge selection committee, chaired by his friend and former employer, Sean Parnell.

Judge applications to the secret committee were due by November 20, but Sullivan spokeswoman Amanda Coyne has declined to respond to multiple requests about how many people have applied and when their names will be released. Perhaps they will never be released.

Members of the Sullivan/Parnell secret committee were told not to talk to the press about the committee and refer all questions to Coyne, who won’t answer questions.

The last time there was a judge vacancy in Alaska it took more than four years to get a replacement nominated by the president because of a split between Sullivan and Sen. Lisa Murkowski and opposition to the Obama administration.

This time the position has been vacant for two years. Coyne did say Nov. 8 that “the senator and the council will move expeditiously and he intends to improve upon the lengthy timeline—more than four years—that occurred last time there was a vacancy on the U.S. District Court for Alaska.”

I suspect Sullivan’s goal is to drag this out until after the 2024 election, hoping that the president in 2025 will not be named Joe Biden.

Federal judges are appointed by the president, but there is a tradition of giving home-state senators the ability to forward names of potential nominees to the president. Sullivan won’t like whoever finds favor with the Biden administration, which is why he is stalling.

Alaska news organizations haven’t covered the Sullivan/Parnell secret committee.

At a minimum, Alaskans deserve to know who applied for the judgeship and how the applicants answered Sullivan’s political questionnaire, on which he asks applicants, among other things, to name their favorite judges, their favorite Alaska judges and the most important U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

This entire process reflects poorly on Sullivan and the nine friends and/or political allies who agreed to accept his flawed process—UAA Chancellor and former Gov. Parnell, former Lt. Gov. Loren Leman, Texas lawyer Stephen Cox, Jon Katchen, Matt Findley, Jessica Graham, Jo Kuchle, Christine Pate and Kim Reitmeier.

“Sen. Sullivan has crafted this inclusive council based on the model of Alaska’s state judicial council,” a Sullivan press release claimed on September 19.

In fact, the Alaska Judicial Council process is nothing at all like the Sullivan/Parnell secret committee, which is accountable to no one except Sullivan.

The Alaska Judicial Council, set up in the Alaska Constitution, calls for a process that allows public participation. The Sullivan/Parnell secret committee excludes all public participation.

The six-member Alaska Judicial Council informs the public of who applies to serve on the Alaska courts. It posts clear information on how it operates and how the public can take part.

For example, the council announced Oct. 30 that 14 attorneys have applied for three positions in the court system. One of them has since withdrawn.

“Public comment on the qualifications of these applicants is encouraged during the evaluation phase of the council’s work,” the Alaska Judicial Council says.

The Sullvan/Parnell secret committee, by contrast, won’t say when it meets or who has applied for the federal court vacancy, which eliminates the chance for public comment. It won’t release anything about its operations.

When the Alaska Judicial Council meets and votes on applicants, it releases that information to the public, along with the details on how the council members vote.

The Alaska Judicial Council posts the biographical statements submitted by applicants on its website.

The Alaska Judicial Council has a thorough application form that is focused on solid questions about judicial performance, not the overtly political questionnaire developed by the Sullivan/Parnell secret committee.

The completed Alaska Judicial Council applications are available for all to read. The Sullivan/Parnell secret committee questionnaires “will be kept confidential,” according to Sullivan.

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