After the Alaska Federation of Natives sent a letter to Alaska’s U.S. senators opposing the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh for Supreme Court justice, Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan picked up the phone.
Before returning to Alaska for the weekend, where he was to receive a promotion to colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps and speak at a Republican Party meeting, he called Kavanaugh and had a long talk, asking him about each of the concerns that AFN had brought forth.
Kavanaugh’s answers were more than acceptable, Sullivan said on Friday.
The senator found no shred of evidence that Kavanaugh holds any hostile view of Alaska Natives. In fact, Sullivan said Kavanaugh recognizes that Alaska Natives have been repeatedly recognized by Congress as indigenous people, with tribal status, whereas the Native Hawaiians have not been recognized in the same way by Congress.
The criticism that Kavanaugh would view Alaska Natives from a uninformed stance is not grounded in the judges’s actions or answers, Sullivan said.
The AFN letter was something Sullivan took seriously. He said not only are nearly 20 percent of Alaskans tied to a Native heritage, his wife and children are Alaska Native, so he takes these kinds of questions are not merely academic to him.
“To be perfectly clear, If I believed or saw evidence that Judge Kavanaugh’s views were somehow opposed or hostile to Alaska Natives, a very important population to our state that happens to include my wife, and daughters and mother in law, I would not support his confirmation. Yesterday I asked him if he held such views. He said no and I believe him,” Sullivan said, after having a phone call with Kavanaugh that lasted over 30 minutes.
“I wanted to hear directly from Judge Kavanaugh on these issues because they are important to my constituents,” Sullivan said.
Regarding the Sturgeon case, which is a instance of a moose hunter trying to get access to hunting grounds, Sullivan said that Kavanaugh has made it clear that he knows Alaska is different, and has unique laws that apply, such as the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act and the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
“Congress has repeatedly made it clear, we are different and we need to be viewed through that lens,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said many Alaska Native leaders were in D.C. last week and he had met with several of them.
“I just wanted to say I am listening, hearing this, I said it was important enough. And [AFN] is a very important organization,” he said.
Regarding something called the Indian Commerce Clause, Sullivan said that Kavanaugh has never had a case that deals with that, because he’s been in the D.C. District Court, where few of these cases are ever brought. The last justice confirmed, Neal Gorsuch, had served in the 10th Circuit, and therefore had a clear record where he had ruled in favor of tribes vs. the federal government. Kavanaugh assured Sullivan that he would be an independent voice on the court regarding how the commerce clause is interpreted.
Sullivan said he gave Sen. Lisa Murkowski a call and debriefed her on the conversation he had had with Kavanaugh.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote on the nomination on Thursday.
