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![handle is hein.barjournals/askabar0003 and id is 1 raw text is: 4he
Volume 3, Number 1 CT-galte, gemp ignttm& January 1980 $1.00
No
Continuances
In November 1979, the Supreme
Court advised Anchorage Superior
Court administration that additional
judge time would be available during
January, February, March and April,
1980 to alleviate the backlog of civil
cases sat for trial in Anchorage.
First taking cases that had already
been scheduled to begin on a specific
date or during a specific week during
those months, calendaring assigned
cases to the visiting judges. At trial
setting conferences beginning week
of November 26, additional civil cases
were assigned to the visiting judges.
Each such assignment was stated on
the trial setting conference order.
The trial date was assigned for a
specific week not a particular date.
In further attempts to alleviate
the backlog, calendaring also sched-
uled settlement conferences for cases
already scheduled for trial. During
the three week period of December
17 through January 4, Judge Karl
Johnstone held 39 settlement confern-
cas which resulted in 13 final -settle-
ments. Additionally, some settlement
conferences were scheduled before
Judges Moody, Lewis and Singleton.
On December 22, the Supreme
Court temporarily suspended perti-
nent portions of Rule 40 provisions to
permit Calendaring to remove trailing
cases from the calendar. The attor-
neys could also request removal from
the trailing calendar. Due to the
holidays, Calendaring began elimi-
nating trailing as of January 3, 1980.
At that time, 44 civil cases were
trailing. The longest trailing case had
originally been set to go to trial on
October 19. According to calendaring
personnel, the case was trailing be-
cause counsel could not agree on a
trial date. As cf January 3, the aver-
age trailing tine for a 3 to 4 day
trial was 10 days. Two cases which
were 10 day trials had trailed from
November 5 and 7 until they were
reset January 3rd.
Counsel for civil cases trailing
as of Jan. 3 were given choices of
either going to trial January 7th or
having another trial setting confer-
ence to set the cases for trial for a
week certain during February, March
or April when visiting judges were
available.
As of January 10, calendaring
had scheduled 39 civil cases for trial
through April 14th. The cases will be
tried by visiting judges Schulz, Craske,
Hodges, Blair, Taylor, Steward, Van
Hoomissen, Cooke and Compton. Ad-
ditionally, 147 civil cases had been
set for trial before regular Anchor-
age Superior Court Judges for the
same period. Calendaring personnel
estimated that an additional 200 mian-
hours of civil trial time will be sched-
uled through April l6th.
Judge Thomas Schulz of Ketchi-
ken is the first visiting judge scheduled
for trials. Of the 10 civil cases as-
signed to him for the two weeks
beginning January 7 and January 4,
7 settled, 2 were ready to go and 2
asked for continuances. The two con-
tinuance requests vere for trials
scheduled to last 3 days each.
Chief Justice
Jay A. Rabinowitz
1981 Mid-Winter
CLE Seminars to
be on Mexico
Cruise Ship
At its December, 1979 meeting
the BOG voted to hold the Alaska
Bar Association mid-winter CLE
seminars on the T.S.S. Fairsea. The
10 day cruise will probably depart
Los Angeles during the second week
of February, 1981 and return to that
city. The five probable ports of call
will be Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan,
Acapulco, Zihuatanego and Puerto
Vallarta. The CLE seminars will be
presented on the days when no ports
are made.
The projected costs including
registration, round-trip air fare (Anch-
orage-L.A.) and the cruise, range
from a possible low of $900 per per-
son to a high of $2500. The first
price is four in a cabin on lower
decks and the top price is two in
the must luxurious cabin. The average
accommodation will probably cost
about $1300 per person.
The costs will include access to
everything on board except alcoholic
beverages and gambling facilities.
Negotiations are underway to secure
air rates for Southeastern attorneys
at a rate favorable to the Anchorage-
L.A. fare.
The procedure in Anchorage is
that only the presiding judge or his
designee can grant continuances. The
policy on granting continuances is
that because counsel in the trial
setting conferences agree on the as-
signed date or week of trial, only
extreme emergencies are grounds
for continuances unless counsel makes
[continued on page 2]
The Anchorage Doily News has
designated Alaska Supreme Court
Chief Justice Jay Rabinowitz as Citi-
zen of the Decade. The Daily News,
which is Alaska's largest morning
newspaper, asked readers in Decem-
ber 1979 to send in their nominations
for this honor, From the nominations,
the editorial board of the newspaper
voted to select Chief Jusitce Rabi-
nowitz. According to the Doily News:
The nominees were considered in
terms of their accomplishments, char-
acter, and so on, the panel evaluated
the degree to which nominees repre-
sented the dominant trends of the
state in the past decade and deter-
mined that each finalist should have
demonstrated a positive impact on
the state.
Daily News
The following is excerpted from
Daily News reporter Don Hunter's
story announcing the selection of the
Chief justice:
As the decade of the '70s rolled
in, Jay Rabinowitz was 42 years old,
and already a five-year veteran of
the state's highest court. As the '80s
begin, he is embarking on his second
throe-year term as chief justice.
Barrage of Criticism
A barrage of critical decisions
faced the Supreme Court, and Alaska,
in the intervening ten years. The
Fairbanksian's influence was keenly
felt in many of the most important,
though his name usually was shad-
owed by the issues that shaped
Alaska: the Beirne homestead initia-
tive, limited entry, local hire, Molly
Hootch and rural education, Hickel
and Hammond and election challen-
ges.
A jurist-he lauds the state's
justice system for its freedom from
politics-and a self-described team
player, Rabinowitz did not often
seek the glare of publicity. One ac-
quaintance describes him as a gen-
tleman in the Renaissance sense,
in the classical sense.
Hair
A good starting place to review
Rabinowitz' place in the '70s might
begin with a case issuing from a
INSIDE
Bash ................ 3
Bacon ............... 4
Bull ................. 7
Budget ............. 12
Bar ................ 14
Bush ............... 15
Fairbanks junior high school, center-
ing on an issue that, in retrospect,
hardly seems the type to generate
a landmark decision.
Michael Breese, a seventh-grade
student at Main Junior High School,
was expelled because his hair was
too long to meet school regulations.
After a Superior Court judge rejected
the appeal, Breese took the case to
the Supreme Court.
Writing for the majority in 1972,
Rabinowitz said, The United States
of America, and Alaska in particular,
reflect a pluralistic society, grounded
upon such basic values as the pre-
servation of maximum individual
choice, protection of minority senti-
ments, and appreciation for divergent
lifestyles.
The spectre of governmental
control of the physical appearances
of private citizens, young and old,
is antithetical to a free society, con-
trary to our notions of a government
of limited powers, and repugnant
to the concept of personal liberty...
The Breese decision established
an Alaska precedent requiring the
state to show a compelling interest
before infringing upon individual
liberties. Three years later, the Su-
preme Court returned to the issue of
privacy, this time in a controversial
case that called up another basic
issue - the time-honored tradition
that a person's home is his castle,
within bounds.
Marijuana
Irwin Ravin had been arrested
and charged with possession of mari-
juana, challenging the state's drug
statutes.
Again writing for the majority,
Rabinowitz noted, In Alaska we
have also recognized the distinctive
nature of the home as a place where
the individual's privacy receives
special attention. This court has con-
sistently recognized that the home is
constitutionally protected from un-
reasonable searches and seizures,
reasoning that the home itself retains
a protected status under the Fourth
Amendment and Alaska's constitution
distance from that of the occupant's
person...
Our territory and now state
has traditionally been the home of
people who prize their individuality
and who have chosen to settle or to
continue living here in order to achieve
a measure of control over their own
lifestyles which is now virtually un-
attainable in many of our sister
states.
Bush Schools
At about the same time, in what
he characterizes as one of my
losses, Rabinowitz leapt to the de-
fense of the right of students in Bush
villages to attend school in their home
villages,
In a dissenting opinion, Rabino-
witz argued that a section of the state
constitution providing that The leg-
islature shall by general law establish
[continued on page 13]
Rabinowitz named
Citizen of the Decade](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.barjournals/askabar0003&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)