Anchorage judge faces possible ouster in Nov. 5 election after contentious homeschool decision

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman is facing a campaign to remove him from the bench after he struck down a state law in April that allowed the parents of homeschooled students to use public education funds at private schools.

The effort to oust Zeman has so far been modest and largely informal. But it does reflect a growing trend of state judges facing efforts from conservatives to unseat them after issuing contentious decisions, and of residents in Southcentral Alaska voting against retaining them.

Zeman, who was appointed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy in 2020, worked for more than 15 years as an attorney in Alaska prior to becoming a judge. Born and raised in Anchorage, Zeman says he wants to stay on the bench and keep serving the community.

“This is my community. I care deeply for it. I took this job in order to try and substantively give back,” he said in an interview.

The Alaska Supreme Court reversed Zeman’s homeschool decision in June. The justices declined to rule on whether spending publicly funded homeschool allotments at private schools is constitutional. Instead, the case was returned to Zeman’s court for further hearings.

“I can’t talk about the specific case itself, just because it’s still an active and open case,” Zeman said.

In June, attorneys for the plaintiffs indicated they would again contest the use of homeschool funding at private schools, meaning that if Zeman is retained as a judge, he could again rule on the constitutionality of homeschool allotments.

Former Alaska Attorney General Michael Geraghty, who served in Republican Gov. Sean Parnell’s administration, is a former colleague of Zeman’s. He defended his friend’s decision on the homeschool case in a Wednesday interview.

“I think the judge was correct on that,” he said. “The kernel of truth there (was) that the state has to be careful how it parcels the education allotments, and there are limits to it.”

But Jim Minnery, executive director of the conservative Christian advocacy group the Alaska Family Council, doesn’t agree.

In an opinion piece published on conservative news website the Alaska Watchman, he said that Zeman’s “horrible ruling” stripped freedoms from Alaska’s roughly 20,000 homeschool students.

”If you are an Alaskan who believes in school choice, has experienced the freedom of educational alternatives for your family or simply is tired of activist judges imposing their personal views in the courtroom, it’s time to show Judge Adolf Zeman the door,” Minnery said.

The Alaska Constitution requires that judges periodically go before voters for up-or-down retention votes. Zeman is one of 19 state judges on the general election ballot this year.

As a superior court judge in the Third Judicial District, voters in Southcentral and Southwest Alaska will decide whether Zeman keeps serving on the bench.

“That includes the very conservative, homeschool-proud communities of the Kenai Peninsula and the (Mat-Su) Valley, right? So we have a shot,” said Minnery.

Judicial retention

Since 1976, the Alaska Judicial Council has provided recommendations to voters on whether judges should be retained. Those recommendations are largely based on detailed performance evaluations from attorneys, court employees and law enforcement officers.

“The retention evaluation information and the evaluation process is extensive. It takes a year to gather all the information on the judge’s performance, put it all together and get it loaded on the council’s website,” said executive director Susanne DiPietro.

DiPietro encouraged voters to head to the Alaska Judicial Council’s webpage to learn more about the judges who will be on the ballot this year.

Zeman scored highly in his performance evaluation. Geraghty said that matches what he knows about his former colleague.

“He is a very capable guy, a good guy, and someone I enjoyed working with,” he said.

In a May hearing, the Alaska Judicial Council recommended that all 19 state judges be retained by voters. But Zeman was only approved after lengthy discussions on a 4-2 vote, with two Dunleavy appointees voting no, the Alaska Beacon reported.

As a state senator, Dunleavy authored the law Zeman struck down that expanded how parents of homeschooled students could use publicly funded allotments at private and religious schools.

The Alaska Commission on Judicial Conduct’s rules require a judge to face “active opposition” before they can campaign to be retained. Executive director Marla Greenstein said Zeman determined he faced active opposition after the May hearing.

Zeman said he isn’t planning on fundraising or actively campaigning. Instead, he created a website that gives more “personal information” about him than appears on the court system’s webpage.

Minnery said he has been working behind the scenes with groups that support homeschooling and public funds being used at private schools. He created a petition, a webpage and sent an email to supporters, but he acknowledged the campaign faced “an uphill battle.”

Judicial retention elections in Alaska have typically been quiet affairs. Alaska voters have rejected only six judges in state history.

But in recent years, conservative groups have taken a more active role in encouraging voters to reject judges, often for decisions on abortion.

Minnery has long argued that the Alaska Judicial Council’s performance evaluations should measure judicial philosophy. He said voters should know if a judge is closer philosophically to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas or to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Since the 2010 election, Minnery has led campaigns to remove so-called “liberal” judges. In 2022, he recommended voters reject all 29 judges on the ballot — all were retained.

Compared to a relatively costly and unsuccessful attempt to oust Alaska Supreme Court Justice Susan Carney in 2020, the campaign to reject Zeman has been modest, and largely been reserved to social media.

Palmer Republican Sen. Shelley Hughes said that she will vote no on Zeman. She has been sharing that message on her website, on social media and on podcasts.

Hughes said that Zeman’s decision to strike down homeschool allotments was “sloppy.” She said he didn’t consider discussions at Alaska’s 1955 constitutional convention that she said showed allotments could be used at private schools.

“There may not be the votes to give him the boot, but I think there could be more votes against him than the others, and it might actually help him be a better judge — to really do his job with greater diligence,” she said.

Minnery’s independent expenditure group reported spending $500 in October. The spending covered sending an email to supporters urging them to reject Zeman, designing a petition to oppose Zeman, and hosting a webpage opposing him. Despite the low-key campaign, he remained hopeful that voters would oust Zeman because of the impact of the homeschool decision on thousands of families.

“I think what’s different this time is that there’s a very defined ruling that impacted a very defined constituency,” he said.

An organization called Alaskans for Fair Courts, which states its goal is to “provide voters with nonpartisan, educational information about judicial retention process, and advocate for judges under retention election,” reported earlier this month that it had spent more than $31,000 to support Zeman’s retention, along with the retention of all other judges appearing on the November ballot. The organization, chaired by Anchorage attorney Donna Goldsmith, reported raising more than $60,000 this cycle, primarily from Anchorage-based attorneys.

Minnery acknowledged that he doesn’t know anything about Zeman apart from the decision in the homeschool case. But he said that was unimportant. He said it was important that Zeman had ruled it was unconstitutional to use homeschool allotments at private schools.

“He has the right to be that way, just like all the other liberal justices, but we have the right to say, ‘No, that’s horrible,’” he said.

Zeman said the process used by the Alaska Judicial Council is to determine whether judges should be retained was “comprehensive.”

“Judges aren’t evaluated on one singular decision,” he said. “If that were the case, I don’t know that we’d be able to effectively be able to judge the cases in front of us, and that’s why I think our system is set up to hit the different metrics — our judicial temperament, our judicial knowledge, ensuring that cases are getting processed properly and efficiently — things like that.”

In the Third Judicial District — where the bulk of Alaska residents live — the number of no votes for judges has been gradually increasing election by election — particularly in Southcentral Alaska. In the 2022 election, Alaska voters approved judges at the lowest median percentage in state history, Alaska Public Media reported.

Minnery argued the trend reflects a growing lack of confidence in judges. He said that “people don’t trust them, because they’re not trustworthy.”

Geraghty said the framers of the Alaska Constitution wanted judges to be independent, and not beholden to a political party or particular interest. He said he was “alarmed” by a growing trend of Alaskans voting no on judges, which he blamed on “hyper-partisanship” nationally that he said has “bled into Alaska.”

“We don’t want judges making decisions based on what’s popular or what’s not popular. They should just follow the law, follow the constitution,” he said.

Anchorage Daily News reporter Iris Samuels contributed.

This story was originally published by the Anchorage Daily News and is republished here with permission.