Sullivan's office refuses to reply to questions on secret federal judge selection process

Sen. Dan Sullivan’s office has refused to release the names of Alaskans who have applied to his hand-picked selection committee to try to fill the two open federal judgeships in Alaska.

The selection committee, led by former Gov. Sean Parnell, has a working majority of members who are politically aligned with Sullivan and others who are friendly to Sullivan.

They will give Sullivan the names of prospective judges who will be acceptable to Sullivan.

I have twice emailed Sullivan’s spokeswoman, former journalist Amanda Coyne, asking for a list of the people who have applied for the vacancies and are being vetted in secret. She has not responded. Coyne was named by Sullivan to be the point of contact for the Sullivan judge selection committee.

Sullivan’s stonewalling deprives Alaskans of any knowledge of what he is doing behind the scenes to evade the more open and traditional process that Sen. Lisa Murkowski is using to consider names of applicants to be forwarded to the president for consideration.

Under Murkowski’s approach we not only know the names and have the resumes of applicants, but also the results of a poll of the members of the Alaska Bar Association about their opinions regarding the qualifications of the applicants.

Under Sullivan’s approach, secrecy rules.

Here is a list of the applicants under the Murkowski process and the bar poll results.

Here are their letters of application and their resumes.

A total of 407 people responded to the poll, but for every applicant except one, a majority of respondents said they didn’t know if the applicant was qualified.

The only exception was Anchorage Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman, who was rated as qualified by 55 percent of the respondents and not qualified by 5 percent.

The judge applicants we know about are:

Jessie M. Alloway, solicitor general in the Department of Law.

Joseph F. Busa, deputy municipal attorney for Anchorage.

Robert W. Corbisier, director of the state Office of Human Rights.

Michael J. Heyman, criminal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Anchorage.

Ronald W. Opsahl, assistant attorney general in the Department of Law.

Scott A. Oravec, federal magistrate judge.

Danee L. Pontious, Anchorage lawyer in private practice.

Kyle Reardon, federal magistrate judge.

Ian Wheeles, Superior Court Judge, Anchorage.

Joan Wilson, chief administrative law judge, Office of Administrative Hearings.

Justin Works, assistant district attorney, Kenai.

Adolf Zeman, Superior Court Judge, Anchorage.

Sullivan voted against 233 Biden nominees for federal district court positions. He voted for 2. He opposed the nominees that Murkowski put forward to Biden and no one was nominated to fill a judgeship that has been vacant for three years.

In November 2023, Coyne said that Sullivan and his selection committee “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.”

Now President Trump selects federal judges, who face confirmation votes in a closely divided Senate.

The federal tradition of relying on home-state senators to agree on names for federal judges appointed by the president means the vacancies may continue as long as Murkowski and Sullivan are divided.

The refusal to release the names of the judge applicants and their resumes will reflect poorly on Sullivan and the nine friends and/or political allies who serve on his secret committee—UAA Chancellor and former Gov. Parnell, former Lt. Gov. Loren Leman, Texas lawyer Stephen Cox, former Sullivan employee Jon Katchen, Matt Findley, Jessica Graham, Jo Kuchle, Christine Pate and Kim Reitmeier.

The members of this committee have a responsibility to the public, one that they have neglected by choosing secrecy, not transparency.

Sullivan claims that his selection committee is “based on the model of Alaska’s state judicial council,” a Sullivan press release claimed on September 19, 2023.

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 on February 7 that 9 attorneys had applied for two vacant judgeships in the state court system and mentioned that interviews and public hearings would be held.

“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 Sullivan/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.

Your contributions help support independent analysis and political commentary by Alaska reporter and author Dermot Cole. Thank you for reading and for your support. Either click here to use PayPal or send checks to: Dermot Cole, Box 10673, Fairbanks, AK 99710-0673