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

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