Daily Sitka Sentinel

Kavanaugh Opposed By Native Federation

By Sentinel Staff
    The Alaska Federation of Natives issued a statement Wednesday in which it “strongly urges the U.S. Senate to vote against Judge (Brett) Kavanaugh,” the Trump administration nominee for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.
    The AFN is the oldest and largest Native organization in Alaska. The AFN statement, emailed to Alaska media, said “the questions and colloquies” that came out of Kavanaugh’s Senate Judiciary hearings last week “have necessitated us taking a position.”
     The statement was issued on the AFN letterhead but did not attribute it to any specific AFN official or officials. The press contact was listed as Jeffry Silverman, but he did not respond to the Sentinel’s emailed request for information about how the statement was adopted.
    “Judge Kavanaugh’s position on the Indian Commerce Clause (of the U.S. Constitution) is erroneous,” the AFN statement said. “Congress’ plenary power over Indian affairs is grounded in the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The clause gives Congress the power to ‘regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes.’ Judge Kavanaugh concedes this point. However, like Justice Clarence Thomas—the most senior justice on the Supreme Court—he challenges the clause’s application to affairs beyond trade. This impacts Alaska Native tribes, corporations, organizations and consortia because their dealings with Congress presently extend to a host of federal programs concerning their members, resources and governments...
    “Because most federal laws concerning Indians lack a nexus to Justice Thomas’s narrow definition of trade, they would be unlikely to survive the scrutiny he urges. The result would be a wholesale reshaping of the body of law and policy that has governed Indian affairs for the past century and a half.”
    The statement went on to say that “legal observers tracking Judge Kavanaugh believe he is further to the right than Chief Justice John Roberts,” and that “confirming a nominee with this viewpoint would be disastrous for Alaska, and would roll back the gains of self-determination and usher back in the losses of termination.”
    The senior of Alaska’s two Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski, has been widely seen as a possible holdout from the Republican majority’s support of Kavanaugh’s confirmation, but she has said that she is satisfied by Kavanaugh’s response to her questions about women’s rights to abortion, which she supports.
    The Wednesday statement by AFN raised another issue in which she has a position, advocating for the interests of Native Alaskans.
    Asked for comment about the AFN statement, Murkowski’s office submitted this statement to the Sentinel by email:
    “Senator Murkowski has made it clear that she is continuing her due diligence in vetting the nominee --- from reading opinions, writings, and speeches to meeting with the nominee and following the hearings closely with the opportunity for follow up. She will review additional Committee documents related to the concerns identified by Alaskans as she continues to exercise her due diligence.”
    “AFN membership includes 186 federally recognized Indian tribes, 177 for-profit village corporations, 12 for-profit regional corporations, 12 not-for-profit regional organizations, and a number of tribal consortia that compact and contract to run federal and state programs. For over 50 years, AFN has been the principal forum and voice for Alaska Natives in addressing critical issues of law and policy, including the nomination of U.S. Supreme Court justices,” the organization said in Wednesday’s statement opposing Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court.
    The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation next Thursday, and the Republican majority has said it wants to have the full Senate vote on Kavanaugh before the start of the Supreme Court term that starts Oct. 1.