00                      HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 21                                                                     
01 Supporting the reliance of courts on the Constitution of the United States.                                             
02 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
03       WHEREAS the Declaration of Independence announced that one of the chief causes                                  
04 of the American Revolution was that King George III had "combined with others to subject us                             
05 to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws"; and                                      
06       WHEREAS the United States Supreme Court has recently relied on or consulted the                                 
07 judgments, laws, or pronouncements of foreign jurisdictions to support the court's                                      
08 interpretations of the laws of the United States; and                                                                   
09       WHEREAS the ability of the people of this state and all other states to live their lives                        
10 within clear legal boundaries is the foundation of the rule of law; and                                                 
11       WHEREAS it is the appropriate judicial role to faithfully interpret the expression of                           
12 the popular will through the Constitution of the United States and laws enacted by the duly                             
13 elected representatives of the American people in this state and the other 49 states, under our                         
14 system of checks and balances; and                                                                                      
15       WHEREAS people of this state and all other states should not have to look for                                   
16 guidance on how to live their lives from the often contradictory decisions of any of hundreds                           

01 of foreign jurisdictions, some of which are hostile to the cultures, military actions, and                              
02 domestic and foreign policies of the United States; and                                                                 
03       WHEREAS local, state, and federal judicial consideration by courts in the United                                
04 States of foreign judgments, laws, and policies, or of pronouncements, threatens the                                    
05 sovereignty of this state and the United States and the separation of powers at all                                     
06 governmental levels;                                                                                                    
07       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature supports the reliance of the                                   
08 courts of this state and the United States in making judicial interpretations regarding the                             
09 meaning of the Constitution of the State of Alaska or the Constitution of the United States that                        
10 are based in whole or in part on the constitutions of this state and the United States, and not                         
11 on the judgments, laws, policies, cultures, or pronouncements of any foreign institution,                               
12 organization, group, including the United Nations, or other international organizations, or                             
13 what is sometimes termed "the world community."                                                                         
14       COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the United States Supreme Court;                                     
15 Honorable Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General of the United States; the members of the U.S.                              
16 Senate Committee on the Judiciary; the members of the U.S. House Committee on the                                       
17 Judiciary; the Alaska Supreme Court; the Honorable Frank H. Murkowski, Governor of                                      
18 Alaska; the Honorable David Marquez, Alaska Attorney General; the Alaska Judicial                                       
19 Council; the American Bar Association; the Alaska Bar Association; and the Honorable Ted                                
20 Stevens and the Honorable Lisa Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young,                                   
21 U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.