Alaska Employment Law

Fairbanks: Drugs & property: John Collette’s continuing battle to recover property associated with a marijuana-growing enterprise may have a chance.  Collette studied law while serving 8 1/2 years.  Representing himself, he recently convinced the 9th Circuit that the DEA had failed to give him adequate notice before seizing some of his property, according to the Court of Appeals’ September 6th unpublished opinion.

Juneau: Religion & sex:  The Iowa Supreme Court has approved former priest Michael Nash’s application to take the Iowa Bar Examination.  Nash admitted various unusual disciplinary practices while serving the Juneau Diocese from 1980 through 2002, but claimed his motivations were non-sexual.  The Iowa Supreme Court found his inappropriate conduct to be “decades old,” less offensive when set in historical context, non-criminal, and overshadowed by his more recent conduct.  His application was supported by a professor and the Dean of Creighton University Law School.  

Alaska: Oil & politics:  For running commentary on the Kott trial, and for news that the Anchorage Daily News thinks is too poorly-sourced to run in its daily paper but too juicy to hold for the Sunday gossip column, go to the ADN’s Alaska Politics blog.