Pubdate: Sat, 31 Jan 2004
Source: Anchorage Daily News (AK)
Copyright: 2004 The Anchorage Daily News
Contact:  http://www.adn.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/18
Author: Geo Beach
Note: Geo Beach is a commentator for National Public Radio and an essayist 
for TomPaine.com.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion)

Attorney General Doesn't Represent Us

Who's your lawyer?

In a personal sense, that's your personal business.

In a civic sense -- in a state of, by and for the people -- it should
be everybody's business. So, commonsensically, you might think that in
Alaska, the attorney general would be the people's lawyer.

But you would be wrong.

Alaska is one of only three states where the attorney general is
appointed, not elected. Do you really want to be like Connecticut and
New Jersey, of all places?

The current attorney general, Gregg Renkes, was appointed by Gov.
Frank Murkowski. Some question the wisdom in that.

A Juneau reporter relayed that certain Democrats regard Renkes as "a
carpetbagger with a barely adequate legal background for the job."
That seems unduly harsh in a state that once employed Edgar Paul Boyko
as AG.

On the other left hand, Mike Doogan wrote that it's absolutely "true
that Attorney General Gregg Renkes is the greatest legal mind since
Oliver Wendell Holmes ... just ask him."

Time for a law review.

When the Alaska Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that "Alaskan
citizens have a right to possess less than four ounces of marijuana in
their home for personal use," Mr. Renkes' response was curious.

He advised the Alaska State Troopers to investigate, seize and
document instances of personal marijuana possession of the type
expressly protected by the appeals court decision. He said he was
helping out the feds.

Perhaps Mr. Renkes thought he had ascended to U.S. attorney general,
but, alas, John Ashcroft has already been loosely canonized into that
position.

In "a government of laws and not of men," it takes a certain amount of
bald legal ego for an officer of the court to dance so prettily around
even blindfolded justice.

And Mr. Renkes also petitioned the Court of Appeals for a
rehearing.

He lost.

The court wrote, "We are convinced that the state's interpretation
(that means Mr. Renkes') ... is wrong."

In another matter, Mr. Renkes' Department of Law signed off on Lt.
Gov. Loren Leman's rejection, for insignificant rule violations, of
signatures supporting a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana.

That ploy lost too.

A Superior Court judge ruled that Lt. Gov. Leman's Division of
Elections was "asleep at the switch" and ordered the rejected
signatures be recounted. Oddly, Lt. Gov. Leman, presumably advised on
the law by Mr. Renkes' Department of Law, said afterward, "What we did
was the right thing in applying the law" -- exactly opposite what the
court had just decided.

Then Mr. Renkes himself blocked a ballot initiative designed to let
the people of Alaska vote to fill a U.S. Senate vacancy of less than
two-and-a-half years.

Mr. Renkes lost again.

A Superior Court judge said that in following the advice of Mr.
Renkes, Lt. Gov. Leman "was wrong not to certify" the initiative. Mr.
Renkes' reasoning seems to have hinged upon a Clintonian approach to
English that depends on your definition of "may" as "must."

This Senate vacancy dispute provoked a big fight about who might be
"playing politics."

The answer, of course, is that everybody is.

Because Alaska's appointed AG is a member of the executive branch --
one of the governor's politicians. And the opposition are pols too.
Except somebody voted for them.

But there's broad support for change. The voice on the page opposite
has many times sounded the chorus for an elected attorney general. And
from 1997 to 2000, Republicans on four occasions introduced
legislation to make the attorney general an elected office.

Some people think Gregg Renkes is sharp. Some people think smoking
marijuana dulls pain. You probably fall into that great middle
category that would rather go home at the end of the day, forget about
lawyers and pour a martini.

Case closed. Unless you care about your Constitution. Or whether
Alaska's employees should be doing the federal government's work. Or
how often judges are correcting the top hired gun.

Instead, this is your state's attorney general on politics. Think
about it.

Later this year, you'll get a chance to vote for legal dope. Don't you
think you ought to be able to elect your own attorney general and get
the chance to vote for legal genius too?
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake