The Alaska Judicial Council has nominated an Anchorage judge, an assistant attorney general and an expert in utilities law for an upcoming vacancy on the Alaska Supreme Court.
When Gov. Mike Dunleavy picks one of the three, he will create the first majority-female Supreme Court in Alaska history.
Kate Demarest, Josie Garton and Aimee Oravec were each nominated in unanimous votes by the six-member council, which will forward their names to Dunleavy for a final selection within 45 days. One member of the council recused themselves from voting on Oravec, who was nominated 5-0.
One of the three nominees will replace Justice Peter Maassen, who is scheduled to retire at the start of 2025. Maassen currently serves as chief justice, a position that’s elected by the court’s five members to a three-year term.
As chief justice, Maassen sits on the judicial council but votes only in case of a tie. That rare occurrence happened Thursday when the council split 3-3 on approving attorney Holly Wells as a fourth nominee. Maassen voted no, and Wells’ nomination was rejected.
Neither the council members nor Maassen explained their votes on Thursday. The council opened public testimony on Wednesday afternoon, but no one spoke for or against any of the nominees.
Demarest, an Alaska resident for 14 years and attorney for 16, is a senior assistant attorney general with the Alaska Department of Law, and has frequently represented the state in high-profile cases dealing with environmental and social issues.
She has a degree in chemical engineering, was a Peace Corps volunteer in South Africa, and worked as a commercial whitewater rafting guide in Utah.
As a pro bono attorney, she worked on behalf of the Fairbanks Four.
Garton has been an attorney and an Alaska resident for 24 years and was named to a seat on the Anchorage Superior Court in 2018 by then-Gov. Bill Walker.
Before working as a judge, she was an assistant public defender and an attorney representing low-income victims of domestic violence in rural Alaska. In one pro bono case, she represented a torture victim who successfully applied for asylum in the United States through Catholic Social Services.
Oravec, an attorney and Alaska resident for 25 ½ years, is the lead attorney for Doyon Utilities LLC in Fairbanks. She’s the only one of the three nominees to live outside Anchorage.
She served for six years on the Judicial Council as an attorney member, ending her service in 2018. She was nominated by the council in 2022 for a prior opening on the Alaska Supreme Court, but Dunleavy declined to select her at that time.
As part of the review process, the council commissioned a statewide survey of registered attorneys, who are asked to rate the nominees’ fitness to serve as a judge.
Garton received the highest overall rating — 4.6 out of 5.0 — and had the most respondents to the survey, indicating that the score wasn’t the result of a low turnout.
Oravec scored a 4.2, and Demarest a 4.1.
Kate Vogel, who applied but was not selected as a nominee, scored a 4.3, the second-highest overall rating. Vogel is the first assistant United States attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s office in Anchorage.
When Dunleavy names Maassen’s successor, it will end a wave of retirements on Alaska’s high court. Between 2020, when the wave began, and February 2025, four of the court’s five members will have been termed out by the Alaska Constitution’s requirement that judges retire at age 70.
• James Brooks is a longtime Alaska reporter, having previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Empire, Kodiak Mirror and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. This article originally appeared online at alaskabeacon.com. Alaska Beacon, an affiliate of States Newsroom, is an independent, nonpartisan news organization focused on connecting Alaskans to their state government.
