00                            HOUSE BILL NO. 506                                                                          
01 "An Act relating to legislative immunity."                                                                              
02 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                                
03    * Section 1.  AS 24.40.010 is repealed and reenacted to read:                                                      
04            Sec. 24.40.010.  Immunities.  (a)  Legislators and their staff may not be held                             
05       to answer before any other tribunal for actions undertaken in the exercise of their                               
06       legislative duties.  Actions undertaken in the exercise of legislative duties include                             
07       communications with other legislators, staff, and constituents, and investigatory                                 
08       activities on matters of legislative concern.                                                                     
09            (b)  A member attending, going to, or returning from legislative sessions is not                             
10       subject to civil process and is privileged from arrest except for felony or breach of the                         
11       peace.  The immunities provided in this subsection extend to a legislator attending,                              
12       going to, or returning from a meeting of an interim standing or special committee of                              
13       the legislature of which the legislator is a member.  For the purposes of going to and                            
14       returning from a session or meeting, the immunities provided extend to a legislator for                           
15       a period of five days immediately preceding and following the legislator's attendance                             

01       at the session or meeting.                                                                                        
02    * Sec. 2.  The uncodified law of the State of Alaska is amended by adding a new section to                         
03 read:                                                                                                                   
04       EFFECT AND LEGISLATIVE INTENT.  One effect of sec. 1 of this Act is to create                                     
05 an evidentiary privilege by providing that legislators and their staff may not be compelled to                          
06 be a witness, to disclose any matter, or to produce any object or writing relating to their                             
07 actions undertaken in the exercise of their legislative duties.  By creating this privilege it is                       
08 not the intent of the Legislature of the State of Alaska to diminish the effect of the law of                           
09 legislative immunity as it exists in Alaska under the Constitution of the State of Alaska and                           
10 the common law.  The legislature recognizes that legislative immunity in Alaska rises beyond                            
11 a mere evidentiary privilege to an immunity that reaches the personal and subject-matter                                
12 jurisdiction of the courts.