The Rev. Matt Schultz's assertion in the Jan. 25 commentary, titled "Faith intersects with secular government, but must do so with restraint," that Senate Joint Resolution 3 is somehow motivated by religion is absurd. Even a cursory review of committee meetings and the floor debate conducted on this topic will show the Legislature was fixated not on religion, but on the bedrock constitutional issues of separation of powers and checks and balances.
But why should I waste the few words allotted to me in this commentary addressing the worn-out positions of the left. It seems no matter what the issue at hand, they only answer with a handful of irrelevant responses, and religious zealotry is one of their favorites. As usual, it is not germane.
So, without further distraction, here is what SJR 3 does and why it is needed. The framers of the Alaska Constitution put in place a rather unusual system for selecting judges. It was called the Missouri plan, but it would be more accurate to call it the "American Bar Association plan" because that is who forwarded it to the constitutional convention.
The plan called for the creation of a Judicial Council to nominate members to the governor for consideration as judges. Ultimately, the governor chooses from the names forwarded by the council, but he or she is limited to select only from the names the council forwards. This council is made up of members chosen from two groups, the lawyers and the public -- and this is where it gets weird.
The three public members of the council are chosen by the governor and their names are forwarded to the Legislature for full confirmation by both houses -- the Senate and the House of Representatives. However, the lawyers get a pass on all this messy ... democracy. They are not chosen by the governor, nor are they confirmed by the Legislature. They are instead chosen by their fellow lawyers in the Alaska Bar Association and immediately become members of the organization that effectively chooses our entire judicial branch.
Once seated, they then choose other lawyers (usually only two or three) to be recommended to the governor for judgeship. Then, whichever lawyer the governor selects goes on to become a judge. Incidentally, the new judge doesn't have to sit for confirmation either.
The process can be called lawyers choosing lawyers to referee other lawyers. As odd as this is in our system of government, it gets even more bizarre. Should the public members disagree with the lawyers and create a tie vote, the tie is broken by the chief justice of the Supreme Court -- another lawyer who is also not confirmed. In a recent two-year period, the chief justice took sides with the lawyers when they split with the public members five out of five times.
My fellow Alaskans -- this should concern you.
It concerned the consultants hired by the delegates of the State Constitutional Convention. They recognized the flaw and advised the five lawyers of the seven-member judiciary committee not to put the Bar Association plan in place. Quoting from their report: "No state constitution has ever gone this far in placing one of the three coordinated branches of the government beyond the reach of the democratic controls... The convention has gone farther than is necessary or safe in putting them in the hands of a private professional group."
There are more flaws in this system than we have time to address in this article, and it is important to note that I in no way intend to impugn the integrity of those involved in this process. It is the process that is flawed, not the people. SJR 3 will fix this problem, and it will do so by the most democratic means possible -- by a vote of the people. That is, unless our lawyer friends who oppose it are successful and kill it in the Legislature before you even get a chance to vote.
Sen. Pete Kelly is the co-chair of the Alaska Senate Finance Committee and represents District A in Fairbanks.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com