Chief Justice Joel Bolger notified Gov. Mike Dunleavy last week of his plan to retire from the court, effective on June 30, 2021. The announcement was published Nov. 30 on the Alaska Court System website.
Bolger said he gave early notice of his retirement because the process for filling a judicial vacancy can take months, and he wishes to ensure a smooth transition.
Bolger spent the majority of his professional career in rural Alaska, serving as a VISTA volunteer attorney in Dillingham, as an assistant public defender in Utqiagvik, and in private practice with the firm of Jamin Ebell Bolger & Gentry in Kodiak. Bolger was appointed to the Valdez District Court by Gov. Tony Knowles in 1997, to the Kodiak Superior Court by Gov. Frank Murkowski in 2003, to the Court of Appeals by Gov. Sarah Palin in 2008, and to the Alaska Supreme Court by Gov. Sean Parnell in 2013.
Judges are not actually appointed by governors, however. A small selection of nominees are offered by the Alaska Judicial Council, a liberal-dominated group that gathers recommendations from the Alaska Bar Association, which is dominated by Democrats. A governor must pick from the list.
Bolger took on an adversarial role to the Dunleavy Administration, including issuing statements shortly after the election of Mike Dunleavy that threw shade on the governor and emphasized the independence of the judiciary.
He became entangled with the effort to recall the governor, which is led by Democrats and political operatives, by making statements about the case before the challenge of the recall came to the Supreme Court. Those statements he made pertained to the delay of appointing a judge to the Palmer court, which became one of the prongs against Dunleavy that is part of the Recall Dunleavy group’s effort to remove him from office.
Later, he recused himself from the recall question, but only after pressure.
At a conference of the Alaska Federation of Natives, Bolger asked the group to help him resist political influence in the judiciary.
Dunleavy had cut the court system’s budget, and an Alaska Superior Court judge subsequently ruled the governor may not do so for any reason.
The appeal of that decision will be before Bolger and the Supreme Court likely prior to his retirement.
Bolger’s three-year term as chief justice began in July 2018. Bolger is the first person in Alaska to be appointed to all four levels of the Alaska judiciary. His final State of the Judiciary speech before the Alaska Legislature this January will be watched with interest.
