The Alaska Constitution Precludes Appointment of Attorney John Wood to the Alaska Judicial Council
Greetings from Alaskans for Fair Courts!
Here is a quick update about our lawsuit against Governor Dunleavy challenging his “appointment” of attorney John W. Wood to the Alaska Judicial Council. Arguing on behalf of Alaskans for Fair Courts, Jim Reeves maintained, among other arguments, that the Governor’s attempted appointment of Wood to the non-attorney position on the Council violates the plain language of the Alaska Constitution. He was joined at last week’s hearing by Joe Geldhof, who made an appearance on behalf of Juneau resident Eric Forrer. The Attorney General, representing Governor Dunleavy and Mr. Wood, opposed our positions. All parties filed their respective briefs before Judge Yvonne Lamoureux, who presides over this lawsuit.
At the September 17th hearing, Judge Lamoureux heard arguments from the parties highlighting their respective positions. Alaskans for Fair Courts and Mr. Forrer emphasized that John W. Wood is an attorney by virtue of his law school education, membership in the Alaska Bar Association, and 28 years of practicing law. Mr. Wood is listed on the Bar website as a suspended attorney because he has failed to pay his bar dues since 2000, after a dispute arising out of his failure to pay federal income taxes.
AFC argued, among other things, that if the court were to accept the State’s argument that Mr. Wood is a non-attorney because he no longer pays his bar dues or practices law, such a ruling would defeat the Constitution’s plain language, which intentionally balances representation on the Judicial Council by requiring appointment of three attorneys chosen by the Bar and three non-attorneys chosen by the governor and confirmed by the Alaska Legislature. Under the State’s interpretation any governor could appoint any retired attorney or retired judge to fill all three of the non-attorney positions – thus populating the Council with individuals who are trained after careers in the law, and who are not lay people. Such a result is clearly not what the Constitution intends and not what the constitutional framers envisioned.
We expect to receive Judge Lamoureux’s opinion sometime between now and October 17th.
James Cannon, an attorney who is a former member of the Alaska Judicial Council, posted the following comment after a piece written by Dermot Cole about this lawsuit:
He quacked like a duck for many, many years.
He advertised he was a duck.
His license to quack was suspended.
He could apply to be a duck again and would not have to do anything but ask the big ducks in charge.
He still gets paid to do what ducks do by the Queen of Hearts.
But now the Queen of Heats [sic] finds it inconvenient for him to be a duck so he is now a hare. Words mean what the Queen of Hearts says the[sic] mean — don’t you see.
QUACK, QUACK
Following are two articles about this lawsuit:
https://www.dermotcole.com/reportingfromalaska/2025/9/14/qjq34nz0hagqfemnm33gmpdah26nhj
– Alaskans for Fair Courts