Dunleavy appoints Jennifer Henderson to Alaska Supreme Court

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Gov. Mike Dunleavy today announced the appointment of Jennifer Stuart Henderson to the Alaska Supreme Court. Judge Henderson was selected from a group of individuals nominated by the Alaska Judicial Council to fill the seat of retiring Chief Justice Joel Bolger.

Judge Henderson has been an Alaska resident for 18 years, and has practiced law for 18 years. She graduated from Yale Law School in 2001 and is currently a superior court judge in Anchorage.

Earlier, the governor had written to the Alaska Judicial Council and asked if they had any other names than the three they had sent. And he remarked that they had ignored a rural applicant from Kotzebue, Judge Paul Roetman. Although the governor did not include any reference to that letter to the council, it appears that he was unable to persuade the majority of the members to provide him with other names.

In Alaska, the governor must choose a justice from a list provided by the Judicial Council, which is largely controlled by the Alaska Bar Association.

Read: Dunleavy pans names provided for Supreme Court pick

25 COMMENTS

    • Parnell first appointed Henderson to the district court in 2012. Walker later appointed her to the superior court, but the first appointment surely helped her chances with the second (and now the third).

    • The system for appointment to the supreme court ENSURES that liberals will ALWAYS be appointed. The Bar Association makes the first cut. All they will advance are colleagues and ideologic allies. Every time. This is the worst part of the Alaska Constitution.

  1. Yale, Harvard – it’s all so upper-upper. I am not sure if it is good to know that we need to import overseers that have no previous knowledge of Alaska or much care about the history for that matter. We deserve all the garbage the courts bestow on us. Oh, and btw, no men need apply.

  2. Is that a recent picture? She looks too young and too cute to be a liberal judge. She looks like she should be singing “Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz.”

  3. I am truly speechless! He picked the person who started the erosion of his fiscal veto powers… and a pro-choice activist to boot! We will never get anywhere with this court!

  4. Prochoice adults turn my stomach. They never terminated their own pregnancies. But they terminate everyone else pregnancies. Yet they still think abortion is still okay. That’s sick!

  5. Who elects the Judicial Council? The system is rigged. This was not Dunleavy’s fault. His hands were tied by our flawed state law.

    • Dunleavy could have fought back by refusing to choose any of the three judges. Instead he rolled over (as usual) and chose what appears to be the most liberal judge possible. What’s going on with the governor?

      • Perhaps you don’t remember, it was his refusal to appoint another judge within the time prescribed by law that led to the recall being approved. It was that specific act / non act that was the deciding factor. Why would he do it again and give the recall advocates that much more ammunition.

        • That is what leaders do. They abide by their principles and do the right thing regardless of the blow back to them. If he had refused to appoint a judge within the time prescribed by law (btw, the legislature ignores the law when it doesn’t suit them), then he would create a firestorm to change our deficient AK Constitution in how our state court judges are chosen.

      • Hey ABA,
        What’s wrong with putting up a Hispanic man from Kotzebue on the list of candidates? Not woke enough for you? Would it have helped if he was transexual, or in a gay marriage?
        .
        ps…. never mind that the ABA is run by a bunch of sexist Democrat women.

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