Senate panel advances judicial nominee who sued judges over abortion questions

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to advance Mike Miller's nomination to the Alaska Judicial Council to a joint session, despite questions about a 2004 federal lawsuit in which Miller sued judges over their refusal to answer abortion-related questionnaires.

Miller, a former state representative and senator from Fairbanks, told the committee he has backed away from that position and now believes judges should decide cases based on law rather than ideology. The committee forwarded his name without a formal vote count, a procedural step that does not reflect members' intent to confirm or reject him in the full joint session.

The lawsuit, Alaska Right to Life and Mike Miller v. Jeff Feldman and several judges, sought to compel sitting judges to answer questions about their positions on abortion. Miller acknowledged his involvement but said he has since changed his view. He said the lawsuit organizers asked to use his name because he had recently run a campaign for the U.S. Senate and had high name recognition at the time.

"I do remember that, and I've since changed that position," Miller said. "As I've been out of the legislature, and sometimes I am guilty of doing the same thing that I have said I should not do, and sometimes we judge from our viewpoint in life. And as I have sat back for the last 20-some years since being out of the legislature, I've been able to reflect on a few things."

"I really want judges to judge," Miller said. "And I hope that they will do the same thing in as much as that they will judge upon what the law says. Now, if they come down with the position that I disagree with, well, that's, if they're judged upon the law, so be it. Then it's incumbent on people like myself to come to you, the legislature, to change the law, and then you might have had a different outcome. But I have backed off from that position literally 25 years ago."

Miller also emphasized his belief in keeping the Judicial Council independent. "I think we need to keep it as independent as possible because that's what makes the system work, is, in my opinion, that we try to keep politics out of it and try to be things based on the law and what the law says," he said.

Sen. Clayman, the committee chair, pressed Miller on whether he would ask judicial applicants about their abortion views if confirmed to the council. Miller said he would not.

"I don't think personally that's an appropriate question coming from me," Miller said. "I would not answer that. I would not ask that question."

One of the defendants in the 2004 lawsuit was Patricia Collins, then a superior court judge who is now retired and serves on the Judicial Council. Clayman asked whether Miller would have difficulty serving alongside Collins. Miller said he would not, comparing the situation to legislative debates where opponents on one issue become allies on the next.