00                      SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 12                                                                    
01 Requesting the United States Senate to move quickly to confirm all nominations by                                       
02 President George W. Bush to the United States Supreme Court.                                                            
03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
04       WHEREAS art. II, sec. 2, Constitution of the United States, states that the President                           
05 "shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint                                    
06 ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other                             
07 officers of the United States"; and                                                                                     
08       WHEREAS there is a high likelihood of at least one vacancy on the United States                                 
09 Supreme Court during the 109th Congress; and                                                                            
10       WHEREAS there is a possibility of the need to elevate a sitting justice on the United                           
11 States Supreme Court to the position of Chief Justice during the 109th Congress; and                                    
12       WHEREAS activist judges on some federal courts have frustrated the constitutional                               
13 structure that prescribes that laws shall be written by elected legislatures; and                                       
14       WHEREAS President George W. Bush has expressed his commitment to appoint                                        
15 federal judges who will strictly interpret the United States Constitution; and                                          
16       WHEREAS, in the past, a minority of senators has used dilatory tactics to prevent a                             

01 Senate floor vote on several of President George W. Bush's judicial nominees, all of whom                               
02 were reported favorably by the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary;                                         
03       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature requests the United States                                     
04 Senate to move quickly to confirm all nominations by President George W. Bush to the                                    
05 United States Supreme Court.                                                                                            
06       COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable George W. Bush, President                              
07 of the United States; the Honorable Richard B. Cheney, Vice-President of the United States                              
08 and President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Bill Frist, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate;                         
09 the Honorable Harry Reid, Minority Leader of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Frank H.                                    
10 Murkowski, Governor of Alaska; and the Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Lisa                                     
11 Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of                                  
12 the Alaska delegation in Congress.