Alaska federal court moves to screen filings from woman who sued 71 times in a year

Alaska's federal court on Tuesday opened a prefiling review case for a woman who brought 71 lawsuits there in a single year, none of which, a judge found, stated a plausible claim.

Under the order the court has said it intends to enter, she would need the court's approval before filing any new case, motion or document in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska. The new docket opens with the court's August notice of that plan. It also shows an order filed Tuesday afternoon, but its text isn't in the free RECAP archive, so it's unclear whether the restriction has taken effect.

U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason moved in August to declare the woman, a self-represented plaintiff named Lewis, a vexatious litigant, finding "frivolousness and harassment" in her "numerous and redundant filings." Gleason gave her 30 days to argue otherwise.

Federal appeals court rulings cited in the notice require a judge to make one of those findings, among other steps, before restricting someone's filings. Under those rulings, frivolous means the claims are numerous and "patently without merit." Harassment means repeated, similar filings show an intent to harass the defendants or the court.

The restriction "will not block Plaintiff's access to the judicial system," Gleason wrote. It is meant to make sure her filings are "not frivolous" and made "in good faith" before they use up the court's time or draw in other parties.

At least seven more cases followed the August notice, filed Sept. 28 to Oct. 8. The court entered judgments in all seven on Tuesday.

Sixty-three of the 71 were filed last fall, between Sept. 9 and Nov. 14, 2025. The court's judges agreed to send all of them to Senior U.S. District Judge Ralph R. Beistline "for judicial efficiency," according to Gleason's notice. In a Dec. 5, 2025, order, Beistline dismissed 60 of them with prejudice, meaning they can't be brought again, and let her try again in the other three. She didn't, and those were dismissed too.

The defendants ranged from NASA, the Pentagon, the FBI and the U.S. Post Office to hospitals in Anchorage, the Mat-Su and Juneau, the Anchorage School District and the University of Alaska Anchorage, according to the list in Gleason's notice. She named the U.S. Air Force in more than 45 cases.

Gleason wrote that the court had repeatedly told her why those claims couldn't go forward: that federal agencies are generally shielded from such suits, that state agencies such as the Alaska State Troopers can't be sued in federal court, and that judges are immune from damages suits over acts they take as judges.

Four more cases, filed in February and April, were dismissed in June. Over about four weeks this summer, she filed more than 60 motions to reopen closed cases. The court denied them all Aug. 18.

She also sued Beistline twice over his rulings, and in July she sued Gov. Mike Dunleavy. In one motion, she wrote that she was "not really suing this man it's just a complaint," which Gleason said suggested she didn't understand that a complaint starts a lawsuit. Beistline stepped aside from the first case naming him, and Gleason took it over.

Gleason also noted that the woman has filed numerous lawsuits in Alaska Superior Court, many against the same defendants.