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Breaking: Supreme Court says college Affirmative Action violates equal protection clause of Constitution

Suzanne Downing
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Breaking: Supreme Court says college Affirmative Action violates equal protection clause of Constitution

The U.S. Supreme Court today dealt a major blow to college admissions offices that discriminate against Asian and white applicants.

The ruling comes after a lengthy legal battle initiated by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina in November 2014, accusing both institutions of engaging in unfair and illegal racial discrimination in their admissions policies.

The case presented by SFFA challenged the use of racial or ethnic classifications and preferences in admissions and sought to overturn the Supreme Court’s previous ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger, which allowed for the limited use of such policies. SFFA argued that all institutions of higher education should be prohibited from using race as a factor in admissions decisions.

Specifically, SFFA contended that Harvard University violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by penalizing Asian-American applicants and engaging in racial balancing. The organization accused Harvard of overemphasizing race and failing to consider workable race-neutral alternatives. One of the most controversial allegations was that Harvard’s admissions office demerited Asian-American applicants’ personalities, claiming they lacked leadership, confidence, and likability.

Similarly, SFFA accused the University of North Carolina of violating the U.S. Constitution and Title VI by rejecting a race-neutral alternative to racial admissions preferences without demonstrating that such an alternative would significantly impact academic quality or overall student-body diversity. According to SFFA, UNC rejected any race-neutral alternatives, even if they could enhance diversity.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court acknowledged that its previous decision in Grutter v. Bollinger, handed down in June 2003, had been flawed.

The court today stated that it had permitted race-based admissions only within narrow restrictions, requiring university programs to adhere to strict scrutiny and prohibiting the use of race as a stereotype or negative. The court emphasized that such policies should have an expiration date, signaling that at some point, they must come to an end.

The implications of this ruling are expected to reverberate throughout the education system, impacting college admissions practices across the country. While affirmative action policies aimed at promoting diversity on campuses have long been a contentious issue, this Supreme Court ruling represents a significant shift towards a more race-neutral approach to college admissions.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh said in his concurring opinion, “In light of the Constitution’s text, history, and precedent, the Court’s decision today appropriately respects and abides by Grutter’s explicit temporal limit on the use of race-based affirmative action in higher education.”

In the ruling, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. Sotomayor’s dissent said, in part, that the decision “rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress. It holds that race can no longer be used in a limited way in college admissions to achieve such critical benefits.”

This story is breaking and will be updated.

Will the Supreme Court uphold affirmative action in college admissions? Justice Thomas expresses skepticism

Karluk will pay two families with kids to move there for one year

Suzanne Downing
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Karluk will pay two families with kids to move there for one year

The shrinking village of Karluk, on the western shore of Kodiak Island, is trying to keep its school viable. So it’s willing to pay a couple of families with three or four children apiece to move there of a year, so that it can draw down state education funds.

Public schools in Alaska need to maintain an enrollment of 10 students to get state funding. Karluk, which had a population of 37 during the 2010 U.S. Census, is now down to about 21 people. The demographics are Native American: 82.14%; two or more races: 17.86%; White: 0%; Black or African American: 0%.

Karluk Tribal Council’s ad says that it will pay a couple of families with enough kids — three or four — to move to the village, all expenses paid, for a year, and will even provide jobs. That money, without question, is passed through from the U.S. and State taxpayer, to pay families so that the village can draw down more government money and open its school.

If this were any other kind of enterprise other than a tribe, these definitions for acceptable applicants would be considered a federal equal opportunity violation. But this is a tribe.

Karluk is in the Kodiak Island School District, which has 2,277 students and which just approved a $49.5 million budget for the coming year. The village of Karluk is not connected to the schools by road, however. It is extremely remote. There is no high-speed internet.

If there are just two or four school-age children in Karluk, where the median age is 23.7, two families moving in with eight children would nearly redefine the entire town and grow the town by more than one-third. But it’s only for one year. Who knows what will happen the next year, or if the families decide midway through the year that this is just not for them?

The village has an AOL email address listed for those interested: [email protected].

Juneau assemblywoman and her ADN political reporter husband to head out

Suzanne Downing
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24
Juneau assemblywoman and her ADN political reporter husband to head out

Carole Triem, who was first elected to the Juneau Assembly in 2018, is leaving the state — and the country — at least for now. Her Australian husband, Anchorage Daily News political reporter Sean Maguire, based in Juneau, is leaving as well. The two are heading to Australia to care for an ailing relative.

This means four seats on the Juneau Assembly will be up for election this October.

  • Maria Gladziszewski is termed-limited out out
  • Alicia Hughes-Skandijs’ first term ends in October
  • Christine Woll’s first term ends in October
  • Triem had another two years remaining on her term. She and Gladziszewski represent areawide seats.

Triem, from Petersburg, had lived in Juneau and worked for the State of Alaska when she was first elected to the Assembly at age 31.

Maguire previously reported from Juneau for KTUU-Alaska’s News Source. He had worked for “The Australian Financial Review,” and as a comedy writer for an Australian show for three years. Both he and Triem are considered left of center. She campaigned for Democrat Les Gara for governor, even while her husband was a political reporter, a situation that raised eyebrows around political circles.

Juneau government to spend $50K of taxpayer dollars lobbying voters to change their minds, fund new city hall
ADN unethical? Newspaper preps hit job on governor as reporter fails to disclose conflict due to activist spouse

Supreme Court rules state legislature decisions about election maps can be overruled by judiciary

Suzanne Downing
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Supreme Court rules state legislature decisions about election maps can be overruled by judiciary

The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed on Tuesday that state legislatures do not possess unchecked power to establish election laws when federal elections are at stake.

The court’s 6-3 decision, with Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. delivering the majority opinion, emphasized that state courts have the authority to review and supervise state laws governing federal elections.

The ruling comes as a rejection of the legal doctrine known as the “independent state legislature theory.” In Moore v. Harper, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 that the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution does not give state legislatures sole power over elections, thus rejecting the independent state legislature theory.

The case before the Supreme Court involved a congressional map in North Carolina that had been decided by a court to have been partisan gerrymandered. The court upheld the North Carolina Supreme Court’s decision to set aside the map.

Chief Justice Roberts wrote that the Constitution’s elections clause does not shield state legislatures from state judicial review.

“The Constitution’s text makes clear that state legislatures possess authority to prescribe electoral regulations,” wrote Roberts. “But that authority does not insulate state legislatures from the ordinary exercise of state judicial review.”

The ruling is expected to have implications beyond North Carolina and could impact the authority of state courts to review election laws across the states. It strengthens the judicial branch of government getting involved in partisan politics.

Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented from the majority opinion.

Alex Gimarc: The Long Trail is like raw onion on a hamburger — it keeps coming back up

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Alex Gimarc: The Long Trail is like raw onion on a hamburger — it keeps coming back up

By ALEX GIMARC

The Long Trail is a decades long dream of hikers, cyclists, and other outdoor recreation enthusiasts. The project envisions a 500-mile-long, multi-strand, set of trails and paths connecting Fairbanks and Seward. 

Like all grandiose projects, this one has had a bumpy path, most recently being slapped down under the Gov. Frank Murkowski Administration in 2006.  

Like raw onions on a hamburger, however, it keeps coming back up, over the last two years getting capital budget approvals for connected projects (trail improvements); $4.7 million in 2022 and $1.4 million this year.  

The technique by proponents is to request small improvement projects along its projected footprint. This year, the legislature approved trail and access improvements at Eklutna Lakeside Trail, Ram Valley, and Indian Valley. Sen. Bill Wielechowski was quite proud of this in his June, 2023 “Capitol Brief.”

Proponents claim that the proposed trail system is easy to do because it will lie entirely on public lands. 

If you look at the public lands between Fairbanks and Seward, there are two obvious choices: Easements along the Alaska Railroad (AKRR) or the Seward Highway. It is the use of these easements that becomes the crux of the opposition, as an easement does not imply or guarantee ownership or the ability to build a trail on it. Easements to widen the Seward Highway will have to be purchased or stolen via condemnation or eminent domain from property owners. Easements along the railroad are something else entirely, as their use for anything other than railroad use is illegal.  

For example, AKRR has been at war with its neighbors over use of the railroad easement for decades. In this, AKRR has been the aggressor, and bad actor (according to its neighbors), using an unlimited legal budget and the courts to single out a property owner or two, destroy that owner in court, set a legal precedent later used to force that solution on everyone else with an easement on their property. 

I wrote an extended series in Alaska Politics and Elections Online on this in 2021.  

For some reason, AKRR has been very, very quiet about the Long Trail, leading property owners to worry that the fix is in.  The fix in this case, allow Long Trail recreational access to the AKRR easement.

Should they do that, there will be a problem, as there is a Ninth Circuit opinion in Toews v US 03-5129, July 21, 2004, that holds that the scope of a railroad easement does not encompass its use as a recreational trail. The opinion has not been appealed or reversed.

It was this opinion, among other things that led the Federal Highway Administration to issue a Record of Decision on March 30, 2006, rejecting an attempt by the Municipality and Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facility to extend the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail from Kincaid Park to Potter Marsh. That Record of Decision has not been reversed, though there is no telling what the Biden administration would choose to do.  

So, this project is percolating right along, garnering support from the usual suspects on the political left, including the Senate majority. 

Expect them to continue to do piecemeal trail improvements along its proposed length. 

Expect them to attempt to strong arm property owners along the Seward Highway or the railroad into agreement / support. Once the railroad capitulates, and it is my opinion that they are already onboard, expect more money to be spent in court than on the trail itself.  

And it is all so, so unnecessary. If the Legislature wants to support infrastructure, I have some roads and bridges we need to discuss.  

Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.

Juneau government to spend $50K of taxpayer dollars lobbying voters to change their minds, fund new city hall

Suzanne Downing
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16
Juneau government to spend $50K of taxpayer dollars lobbying voters to change their minds, fund new city hall

Juneau voters said no last fall to a proposed bond that would build a new city hall. The Juneau Assembly wants a do-over and on Monday authorized city staff to to spend up to $50,000 lobbying voters to say yes to it next time it’s on the ballot, which appears to be this October.

The city staff will not be providing neutral information to voters, but will spend time pushing information in support of the project, with the intent to sway the voters to be in favor of the initiative that would fund $35 million of the approximately $42 million project.

City Manager Rorie Watt has continued to push the new city hall, even though it comes at a time when property taxes have sent property owners reeling.

Property assessments have soared in Juneau. In 2020, the average home was assessed at $429,000, but that went up to $527,000 in 2022. The mill rate went down slightly, but not enough to offset the high valuations set by the assessor’s office.

“Clearly, we would be trying to influence the outcome of the election,” Watt told the Assembly.

Several Juneau residents called out the Assembly on what appears to be a disregard of the voters’ will. After all, even though an online survey was conducted by the city’s consultant showed support for the project before it was placed on the ballot last year, the survey respondents were self-selecting and heavily weighted toward people who live in downtown Juneau, where Democrats dominate and like to spend on government. Fully 17% of respondents work for the city.

In other words, the survey design and responses show that the city has already spent taxpayer money to come up with the answer the Assembly wanted, which was used to try to convince the foot-draggers, critics told Must Read Alaska.

What the entire community actually thought was revealed in the real poll — the one at the ballot box.

Win Gruening: Juneau muni elections outcome should give the Assembly pause about new City Hall

“They voted nay on the project. We’re using their money to advocate against their vote,” said Wayne Coogan, a critic of government waste.

Others noted that the city has allowed the exterior of the current city hall building to fall into disrepair on purpose, in order to sway the public to support the $35 million bond. The existing city hall is aging and its exterior paint is unsightly. The building, built in the 1950s, needs about $12 million in upgrades to extend its life for another 25 years, the city says. There are other buildings in Juneau built in the same era that have been well maintained over the years.

Critics counter that the Juneau Assembly could have purchased the vacant Walmart building when it went up for sale at a reduced price last year, but instead caved to liberals who want to build a shrine to government downtown.

The Juneau Assembly has instead spent nearly $46 million in taxpayer funds to date for the planned construction of two government buildings, rejected by voters, which are estimated to cost around $120 million together, according to columnist Win Gruening. The other building rejected by voters was the $70+ million civic center.

Win Gruening: Juneau muni elections outcome should give the Assembly pause about new City Hall

“Secondly, property tax assessments this year are rising an average of 16% (though some residents report increases of up to 40%), which negates any purported “reduction” in property taxes by the Assembly,” Gruening said.

The Juneau Assembly has yet to vote on whether to include the city hall bond proposal on the October ballot. The Assembly meets to determine that on July 10.

Juneau voters say no to new city hall, and repeal Assembly’s mandatory real estate disclosure law

Five years since Janus decision, 35% of Alaska public workers opt out of union dues

Suzanne Downing
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16
Five years since Janus decision, 35% of Alaska public workers opt out of union dues

Five years ago today, the United States Supreme Court delivered a groundbreaking ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, declaring it unconstitutional for public sector labor unions to compel non-members to pay dues or fees as a condition of employment.

The case, brought by plaintiff Mark Janus, granted public employees the freedom to opt out of union representation and support only the speech they align with. Janus said the unions were supporting candidates and policies he disagreed with.

In 2023, the Janus v. AFSCME decision serves as a powerful testament to empowering workers to exercise autonomy over their hard-earned money, writes Sarah Montalbano, at Alaska Policy Forum, Alaska’s conservative policy think tank.

The origins of the case trace back to 2015 when Mark Janus, a child support specialist employed by the state of Illinois, challenged the mandatory fees imposed by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

Before the Janus decision in 2018, public employees in states without right-to-work laws faced limited options: Either become full union members and pay full dues or decline membership and pay mandatory “agency fees,” which were often almost as much as full membership dues, discouraging employees from opting out. Despite not being a union member, Mark Janus was obligated to pay agency fees as a condition of his employment.

With the Supreme Court ruling in favor of Janus, government workers now have a choice.

As a result, Alaska has witnessed a significant decline in union membership — over 35% in the government workforce, Montalbano writes at this Alaska Policy Forum link.

In Illinois, where the case was centered, the Illinois Federation of Teachers has over 16,000 fewer members and fee payers than it did in 2017, yet the union took in over $600,000 more in dues and fees in 2022 than it did in 2017, according to reports it filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, writes Illinois Policy. Unions have partially offset losses by increasing dues on their remaining members, the group noted. And they are becoming more militant, the organization said.

Janus was represented by the Illinois Policy Institute’s litigation partner, the Liberty Justice Center, and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. Their work ended over 40 years of forced government union payments. Read their five-year report on the impact of the Janus decision at this Illinois Policy link.

Oregon voters to decide on ranked-choice voting in 2024

Suzanne Downing
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Oregon voters to decide on ranked-choice voting in 2024

While Alaska voters have been working to get signatures needed to repeal ranked-choice voting in the 49th state, Oregon’s state legislators, in the closing hours of this year’s legislative session, took a step toward adopting a ranked-choice voting with the approval of House Bill 2004 on Sunday.

HB 2004 will be on the Oregon ballot in 2024, offering voters the chance to join Alaska and Maine in using ranked-choice voting method. If the referendum passes, both federal and statewide elections will use ranked-choice system, except for the presidential race, which is governed by federal election law. Local jurisdictions will have the option to implement it for their respective elections as well.

The Foundation for Government Accountability calls ranked-choice voting a “disaster.”

“Funded by the progressive Left, RCV advocacy organizations claim that this massive overhaul can improve voter confidence by providing more candidate choices, decreasing negative campaigning, and ensuring majority rule. But these are false promises, and the proliferation of RCV would be harmful to American elections,” the think tank says.

Ranked-choice voting allows voters to rank their preferences, rather than simply make a single, binary choice. To secure a victory on the general election ballot in November, when the ranked-choice method is used, a candidate must receive more than 50% of the vote. If no candidate achieves an outright majority in the initial count, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and a process continues with the redistribution of votes based on the eliminated candidate’s supporters’ second choice. The process continues until one candidate emerges with a majority of the votes.

Alaska’s system, which includes open primaries, was jerry-rigged by the group of politicos that supported the reelection of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, because it was clear she would not be able to win a Republican primary. Open primaries and ranked-choice generals helped her win her seat, and also brought Alaska a Democrat in Congress — Rep. Mary Peltola.

Pelota travels to Minnesota to push ranked choice voting

Supporters of ranked-choice voting believe that its implementation will lead to fairer outcomes and enhance voter engagement.

Critics argue that the system is overly complicated, cannot be verified by hand counting, and that the retabulation of ballots delays the public knowing the final outcome, and that the system gives a bigger advantage to incumbents who are better known than challengers.

The group trying to repeal ranked-choice voting in Alaska, Alaskans for Honest Elections, have over 14,000 of the 27,000 signatures they need to get their initiative on the 2024 ballot.

Other jurisdictions are playing with the new voting bingo game — Nevada voters passed a measure to establish both open primaries and ranked choice voting like Alaska, but because it would change the state’s constitution, the voters must vote again on the measure. Seattle voters have switched to ranked-choice voting in their local municipal elections.

Seattle hops on the ranked-choice voting bandwagon
Odd Man: ‘Veterans’ group to organize in support of Alaska’s open primaries, ranked choice voting system
Ranked choice messaging: A voting system so complicated that even the trainers can’t explain it
Downing: Nevada’s gamble on open primaries and ranked-choice voting has chance for a do-over in 2024

Political theater: House minority members want survey for special session on veto override

Suzanne Downing
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Political theater: House minority members want survey for special session on veto override

A group of Democrats in the Alaska House of Representatives has asked Speaker Cathy Tilton to conduct a survey among the members of the House to determine if there is an appetite for a special session that the Legislature would call itself into in order to override some or all of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s vetoes.

The letter to Speaker Tilton was signed by Reps. Calvin Schrage, Dan Ortiz, Jennie Armstrong, Andrew Gray, Cliff Groh, Zack Fields, Andi Story, Geneva Mina, Donna Mears, Ashley Carrick, Alyse Galvin, Sara Hannan, Louise Stutes, Andy Josephson, Maxine Dilbert, and Rebecca Himschoot.

Although not all are registered Democrats, it’s widely understood that those with an “undeclared” or “nonpartisan” labels are using them for convenience and vote confusion in their districts.

Of the 16 who signs the letter, nine are freshmen, having served for just one term in office. Many of those nine have never held any type of elected office before.

The old-timers who signed the letter — Andy Josephson, Louise Stutes, and Dan Ortiz — have been in office for several years and understand what they are doing: The Democrat minority is making political theater, all the while knowing the votes are not there.

Speaker Tilton said she was puzzled over the handwringing because the minority refused to give the House majority a three-quarter vote to fund the biggie-sized education bonus out of the Constitutional Budget Reserve, and didn’t give the House majority the vote to allow an extended session, so the budget could be hammered out in the compromises that are usually made in a conference committee. The extended session could have give lawmakers time to handle the problem created by the Senate Majority, which would not cooperate at the end of session.

The Democrats are upset because Gov. Dunleavy scaled back the additional spending that the was awarded to education for the coming year.

Rather than an additional $175 million for education, on top of the regular spending, Dunleavy left in place an $87 million addition boost for the fiscal year, which begins July 1.

But the Legislature’s budget and governor also awarded $3 million for the Alaska Reads Act, which is a program that is meant to help schools increase reading skills in Alaska students, which have dropped in recent years to second-worst in the nation, after New Mexico, according to The Nation’s Report Card.

In addition to the Alaska Reads Act funding, there is lots of extra education money in the budget for FY2023:

  • $299 million for school bond debt reimbursement, helping local governments and school districts with the cost of school construction
  • $117 million for Rural Education Attendance Area funds, ensuring rural Alaskan students have safe schools in which to learn
  • $40 million in funding to the Major Maintenance Fund, clearing large, deferred projects on Alaskan school buildings

In FY2024:

  • $67.2 million for school bond debt reimbursement
  • $27.9 million for Rural Education Attendance Area funds 
  • $19.6 million for School Major Maintenance

In the Senate, Sen. Gary Stevens has let it be known he doesn’t think there is the will to try to get a veto override of the $87 million reduction in the expansion of the spending.

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