Chief Justice of the Alaska Supreme Court Daniel Winfree is the first Alaskan-born person to hold that position, and it comes after a long legal career in the state.<\/p>\n
After 25 years in private practice, Winfree was appointed to the Alaska Supreme Court in 2008. He served as president of the Alaska Bar Association and as chair of its ethics committee.<\/p>\n
Winfree was born in Fairbanks, in the Alaska Territory, told the Empire in an interview Thursday he followed his older brothers whom he looked up to into the legal profession. He initially thought he wanted to go into business with a legal background, he said, but once he enrolled in a joint business and law degree program at U.C. Berkeley, he knew he wanted to focus on law.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the Empire by videoconference, Winfree emphasized the dedication judges have to impartiality and try their best not to let politics impact their decision-making. Members of the court do their best to look at the facts of the case, Winfree said, and try to rule according to the written law, not politics or the popular will.<\/p>\n
“Courts aren’t supposed to reflect the will of the people,” Winfree said. “We don’t decide cases based on political demographics or what the majority wants us to say the U.S. Constitution of the Alaska Constitution says.”<\/p>\n
Some Alaska Republicans have criticized the state’s judicial selection process, saying the process is too tightly controlled by the Alaska Judicial Council and the Alaska Bar Association. Some Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation to change the selection process laid out in the state’s constitution. Rep. Chris Kurka, R-Wasilla, introduced a bill in April for a constitutional amendment that would have Supreme Court Justices selected by voters every four years in a general election.<\/p>\n