ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) — For the first time in state history, the Alaska Supreme Court will have a majority of women following the announced retirement of Chief Justice Peter Maassen.
Maassen said he will retire in 2025 as he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70 for judges in Alaska.
The seven lawyers who applied to the Judicial Council for the Supreme Court position are all women. This means that if all goes as expected, three of the five judges will be women.
Five of the applicants work as lawyers in Anchorage, the other two in Fairbanks.
Whoever is ultimately appointed will be only the fifth woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Of the 27 current and former Alaska Supreme Court justices, only four have been women.
The process of selecting the next Supreme Court justice is initiated by the seven-member Alaska Judicial Council, which consists of the chief justice, three non-lawyers and three practicing attorneys.
In November, the council will interview each candidate. The governor will then have 45 days to appoint someone from the list of nominees as the new judge. The new judge will be the fourth appointed by Governor Mike Dunleavy.
Under the Alaska Constitution, Supreme Court justices must be U.S. citizens and state citizens, be admitted to the bar of Alaska, and possess any additional qualifications required by law.
When asked what it would mean to be Alaska’s first governor with a majority female Supreme Court, Dunleavy’s office said it would be announced once the governor makes his selection from the list of candidates provided to him by the Alaska Judicial Council.
- Kate Demarest, Senior Deputy Attorney General at the Alaska Department of Law in Anchorage
- Josie Garton, Judge of the Superior Court in Anchorage
- Aimee Anderson Oravec, general counsel for Doyon Utilities LLC in Fairbanks;
- Margaret O. Rogers, private practice in Fairbanks;
- Kate Vogel, First Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Anchorage;
- Holly C. Wells, private practice in Anchorage
- Laura Wolff, senior deputy attorney general in the Anchorage Department of Law.
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