Alaska attorney general has emergency surgery in Seattle after suffering heart attack

JUNEAU — Newly confirmed Alaska Attorney General Kevin Clarkson has undergone emergency surgery in Seattle after suffering a heart attack, a spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Law said by email Saturday.

“The Attorney General was taken to the hospital after landing in Seattle Friday night. He had emergency surgery and is currently recovering and in good spirits. He appreciates the well wishes and expects to return to Anchorage next week," wrote Cori Mills, an assistant attorney general and spokeswoman for the department.

In a followup email, Mills said it would be accurate to say he suffered a heart attack.

Details of the surgery were not immediately available, nor was Clarkson’s location Saturday night.

Neither Seattle Harborview nor Swedish Medical Center in Seattle had Clarkson among their patient rolls, hospital representatives said, but a spokesman at Swedish Medical Center said he could have been admitted confidentially and in that case would not show up on the registry.

The Alaska Legislature confirmed Clarkson in a 40-19 vote on April 17, five months after Gov. Michael Dunleavy named him the state’s top legal official.

Clarkson has practiced law in Alaska for more than 30 years. He has four adult children.

He has been a frequent backer of Republican and religious-liberty causes at court. In 2010, he unsuccessfully argued in favor of a ballot measure that would have required parents to be notified if their child under 18 sought to have an abortion.

He represented the Anchorage Baptist Temple in a case over a tax-exempt home. More recently, he represented the Kenai Peninsula Borough in a lawsuit against the borough’s prayer policy at public meetings. He also has represented Republican plaintiffs in a court case that sought to overturn some of Alaska’s limits on campaign contributions.

His work has garnered him praise from the Alliance Defending Freedom, a group devoted to a Christian interpretation of American law.

In confirmation hearings, he said he can separate his personal beliefs from his state work, and that religious-liberty cases, while attention-getting, represent only a fraction of his legal career.