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Month: May 2026
By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon
In a historic vote, Alaska lawmakers rejected Stephen Cox as the state’s new attorney general by a 29-31 vote that saw Cox become just the second cabinet appointment in state history to fail confirmation.
Thirty-one votes were needed for confirmation as the 40-person state House and 20-person state Senate met jointly Thursday to vote on 75 nominations for state boards, commissions and the governor’s cabinet.
Speaking in the Capitol on Thursday, opponents said they viewed Cox as a Republican ideologue who favored party-supported policies at the expense of Alaskans. In particular, opponents pointed to Cox’s support for a lawsuit that could end birthright citizenship and his failure to support the state’s absentee voting program.
The Legislature’s rejection is likely to have limited long-term effects. Immediately after the vote, Dunleavy announced he had named Cox as “Counsel to the Governor,” a position he will take immediately.
“Stephen Cox has a strong understanding of Alaska law and the challenges facing our state,” Dunleavy said in a written statement. “His experience, professionalism, and commitment to public service make him a valuable asset as Counsel to the Governor. I look forward to working with Stephen as we continue advancing policies that strengthen Alaska’s economy, uphold the rule of law, and serve the people of our state.”
Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage and chair of the House Judiciary Committee, opposed Cox as attorney general but supports the new role.
“I think it makes perfect sense,” Gray said. “I think that’s actually a perfect fit. I think Stephen Cox would make an excellent attorney to the governor because they have a lot of alignment and similar priorities.”
The new position was created specifically for Cox within the Office of the Governor.
“The governor has those choices,” said Sen. Matt Claman, D-Anchorage and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “That’s within his power.”
Dunleavy also named Deputy Attorney General Cori Mills as the acting head of the Department of Law.
Dunleavy may designate a permanent replacement who can serve until he is replaced by a new governor in December.
State law prohibits the governor from reappointing Cox as attorney general.
The governor’s other cabinet appointees, including officials in charge of natural resources, the environment and the treasury, received wide support and were confirmed by near-unanimous votes.
Legislators have not rejected a cabinet appointment since 2009, when the Legislature failed to confirm then-Gov. Sarah Palin’s choice of Wayne Anthony Ross to become attorney general.
Speaking Thursday, Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, criticized Cox’s decision to hire an out-of-state attorney with no experience in Alaska as the state’s first Solicitor General.
Following that hire, Cox led the Department of Law in joining Alaska in more than 100 friend-of-the-court briefs on national cases. In some of those cases, Gray said, the briefs were contrary to Alaska law and Alaskans’ interests.
“I believe that Stephen Cox would make probably a good attorney general in a state, just not in our state. He is not the right choice for Alaska,” said Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage and chair of the House Judiciary Committee.
Sen. Lӧki Tobin, D-Anchorage, was particularly critical of Cox’s signature on a letter supporting President Donald Trump’s attempt to eliminate birthright citizenship in the United States.
“That stance threatens my rights. It threatens your rights,” she said, speaking to Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak. “It threatens every Alaskan’s rights.”
Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, appeared to offer a rebuttal to that argument, noting that in general, “attorneys are mercenaries.”
“Somebody’s their boss, whether you’re paying them or whether the governor or the executive hires them. So I suspect that a lot of what we are talking about here is not some rogue attorney general off on his own. I think that he’s had directions that have been provided to him. He’s doing a certain number of things that his boss is telling him to do,” he said.
Sen. Forrest Dunbar, D-Anchorage, responded to that argument. He said the case against birthright citizenship isn’t just wrong on a moral basis, it’s wrong on a factual basis, and it was unethical for the state to back it.
“We should not have signed on to it, and a qualified attorney should not have signed on to it. I don’t know if the governor pressured the Attorney General to sign on to it, or if he did it voluntarily. It actually doesn’t matter to an ethical attorney,” Dunbar said. “An attorney being asked to make those spurious arguments and sign on to an amicus brief that would repeal birthright citizenship should have resigned rather than go forward with that argument.”
Legislators rejected only two other appointments.
Hannah Mielke was turned down for a public seat on the Alaska State Medical Board.
Mielke is an 18-year-old who graduated from high school last year and currently works as an office assistant for Dunleavy.
Opponents said she was unqualified to supervise the state’s doctors and medical professionals. Supporters noted she would be the only female member of the board and significantly younger than other members.
“Frankly, I think a fresh perspective would be good,” said Rep. Mike Prax, R-North Pole. “It really doesn’t matter if you’re 20 or 69, soon to be 70.”
Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, said a large number of young women are skeptical of the medical industry, and Mielke’s perspective could be useful.
Mielke’s nomination failed 13-47.
Lawmakers also turned down Crystal Herring for a seat on the State Board of Professional Counselors. Tobin, speaking in opposition, said her appointment may not follow state law, which requires the appointment go to someone involved in mental health treatment. Herring just provides transportation, she said.
Other objections were raised over the conduct of a COVID-19 pandemic emergency clinic she ran under a contract with the city of Anchorage while donating financially to then-Mayor Dave Bronson.
Her nomination was rejected 28-32.
By: Corinne Smith, Alaska Beacon
The Alaska Legislature passed a resolution urging the Trump administration to waive a steep visa fee to allow the continued recruitment and hiring of international teachers.
Alaska school districts have increasingly relied on international hiring to fill an ongoing teacher shortage across the state, particularly in rural and remote districts. Last fall, the Trump administration issued an executive order increasing the H-1B visa fee from $5,000 per applicant to $100,000 per applicant — putting such visas out of reach for Alaska districts.
The Alaska Senate unanimously passed House Joint Resolution 39 on Tuesday, previously passed by the House, sending it on to Gov. Mike Dunleavy for consideration.
The H-1B visa program provides non-immigrant visas for highly skilled workers, including in education, health care and technology. In Alaska, districts have relied on international educators, particularly for teaching math, science and special education, according to the resolution. The visa is valid for up to six years.
Currently, roughly 570 international teachers are working in Alaska via the visa program. And there are over 1,000 teacher and staff openings in Alaska posted on a job board run by the Alaska Educator Retention and Recruitment Center, a division of the Alaska Council of School Administrators.
Alaska school officials say the new fee is an insurmountable financial burden for districts, as they are in the process of recruiting and hiring teachers for next year.
Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage, carried the resolution in the Senate and said the roughly 2,000% increase in the fee has restricted the flow of critical education professionals coming into the state. “Unfortunately this means that many of these education professions will go unfilled, we just don’t have the resources to cover that $100,000,” Tobin said on Wednesday.
“HJR 39 simply asks our federal government to waive this fee,” Tobin said.
The Legislature’s support and the joint resolution reinforces proposed federal legislation backed by U.S. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan. It was introduced in the U.S. Senate by Murkowski in March but has not advanced since then.
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The U.S. Supreme Court, pictured on April 9, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
This article was originally published by The 19th, a nonprofit newsroom covering gender, politics, and policy.
After briefly letting a national ban take effect, the Supreme Court blocked a lower court’s ruling that would have prevented mailing a key abortion drug.
The decision, issued Thursday, allows telehealth dispensation of mifepristone, one of two drugs used in most abortions, to continue while the state of Louisiana challenges its legality.
Research shows the two-drug regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol is safe to take from home and highly effective in ending a pregnancy. The drug’s safety profile led the Food and Drug Administration to approve mifepristone for distribution without an in-person doctors’ visit in 2023, after the agency allowed medical professionals to do so during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mailed prescriptions have allowed people living in states with bans to continue getting abortions, contributing to an increase in abortions since the fall of Roe v. Wade. Now, about a quarter of all abortions are done through telehealth, and about half are for people living in states with bans. Data released Monday by the Society for Family Planning, which tracks abortions, noted that even in states without abortion bans, about 40 percent of people getting abortions use telehealth.
Medical providers hailed the court’s decision, but argued that the legal back-and-forth could confuse patients seeking abortions and clinicians who provide them.
“Though today’s decision means that mifepristone remains available through telehealth for now, this fight is not over,” Dr. Camille A. Clare, the head of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said in a statement. “The chaos and confusion wrought by competing decisions and the revocation and restoration of access on an almost daily basis do real harm to patients and to the clinicians who care for them.”
Telehealth’s popularity has put abortion opponents on a quest to block the option through a variety of legal challenges and state laws.
The court’s decision comes in response to a case filed by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill who argued that the FDA had insufficiently considered mifepristone’s safety when approving it for telehealth. The state also alleged that the drug’s availability by telehealth had enabled a woman in Louisiana to be forced into an abortion against her will. Abortion opponents have argued often that telehealth has made it easier to force people to get abortions, though research suggests that more often, reproductive coercion involves people being denied the option to terminate a pregnancy.
On May 1, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked mifepristone’s approval for telehealth while the case continued, arguing that Louisiana was likely to succeed. Drug manufacturers appealed to the Supreme Court, which on May 4 temporarily blocked the lower court’s ruling while it considered the case.
The court’s decision blocking the ruling briefly expired at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, May 14. The court ruled almost half an hour later to enable telehealth to continue.
The Louisiana case will continue to make its way through the courts, and could ultimately end up argued before the Supreme Court. Abortion opponents have also launched other legal challenges to mifepristone’s availability, as well as to the state laws that protect health care providers in states with abortion protections when they prescribe and mail the pills to people living in states with bans.
In separate dissents, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito — the court’s two staunchest conservatives — criticized the Supreme Court’s decision to allow telehealth to continue.
Thomas argued that the court should block telehealth, saying the mailing of abortion medications violates the Comstock Act, an 1873 anti-obscenity law that has not been enforced in decades. Abortion opponents argue the law should be resurrected to ban mailing any drugs that can be used for abortions.
Alito, the author of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the court’s decision overturning Roe, wrote that mailing mifepristone undercut Dobbs by allowing people to circumvent their states’ abortion bans.
“Some States responded to Dobbs by making it even easier to obtain an abortion than it was before, and that is their prerogative. Other States, including Louisiana, made abortion illegal except in narrow circumstances,” Alito wrote. “But Louisiana’s efforts have been thwarted by certain medical providers, private organizations, and States that abhor laws like Louisiana’s and seek to undermine their enforcement.”
Abortion opponents swiftly criticized the ruling. Kristan Hawkins, who heads the anti-abortion activist group Students for Life, posted “ENFORCE THE COMSTOCK ACT” seven times in a single post on the social media platform X. In a subsequent post, she argued that the White House should step in to block the mailing of abortion pills.
In a statement, John Seago, who heads the Texas-based anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life, said the Trump administration could intervene, directing the FDA to reverse its decision approving telehealth distribution of mifepristone.
“We shouldn’t have to depend on the court to force the FDA to do the right thing,” Seago said. “The administration could choose to restore the in-person requirement themselves right now.”
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