JURIST - Alaska

On May 22, 2008, Alaskan officials announced that they would file a legal challenge to the Department of the Interior (DOI)'s decision to list the polar bear as threatened on the endangered species list. Governor Sarah Palin claimed that the listing was unnecessary and would have a negative economic....... [more]

On March 19, 1918, the US Congress passed the Standard Time Act, which divided the continental US and Alaska into five time zones. Congress delegated authority to the International Commerce Commission (ICC) to define the boundaries of these time zones for the benefit of interstate commerce carriers....... [more]

An Alaska Superior Court judge on Monday upheld a state law that requires women under the age of 18 to notify their parents if they intend to get an abortion. Judge John Suddock held that the law is constitutional but struck down a provision that would have imposed civil liability on doctors who pro....... [more]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed on Friday the dismissal of the Alaskan village of Kivalina's nuisance claims against energy companies for greenhouse emissions it claimed contributed to global warming and threatened its existence. Kivalina brought suit against 22 energy corpora....... [more]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday upheld a set of regulations issued by the US Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) that provide legal protection to oil companies if the companies incidentally harm small numbers of walruses or polar bears. The Ninth Circuit held that oil companie....... [more]

The state of Alaska filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) unconstionally infringes on Alaska's state sovereignty. In the lawsuit, Alaska argued that Section 5 of the VRA, known as the preclearance requireme....... [more]

On August 12, 2008, the US Supreme Court declined to consider whether Exxon Mobil owed interest on a punitive damages award entered against it for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. In June 2008, the Court had failed to rule on the issue of interest when it reduced punitive damages to $500 million, an....... [more]

Alaska Lieutenant Governor Mead Treadwell issued a regulation on Thursday that allows transgender individuals to change the sex indicator on their driver's licenses without undergoing surgery. Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against Alaska on behalf of....... [more]

A coalition of environmental protection organizations sued the US Department of the Interior, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and other officials on Tuesday in an effort to block offshore oil drilling by Royal Dutch Shell in Alaska's Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. The lawsuit was filed in the US Distric....... [more]

On June 30, 2011, a judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia upheld a 2008 decision by the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to list polar bears as "threatened" on the endangered species list because of melting polar ice caps caused by climate change. Environmental groups and the s....... [more]

UN Special Rapporteur on Rights of Indigenous Peoples James Anaya will visit the United States from April 23 to May 4 to launch the UN's first ever investigation into the rights situation of Native Americans. Anaya will be looking into the rights of Native Americans, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaii....... [more]