The Alaska Supreme Court overturned a 20-year-old precedent Friday by ruling that Alaska Native tribal organizations can more easily receive the kind of means the tribal consortiums that provide health care for tens of thousands of Alaskans — both Native and non-Native — are largely immune from civil lawsuits in state court, unless those consortiums waive their immunity.
“In light of this new decision, if you are an employee of one of these corporations and you are a victim of sexual harassment, racial discrimination, illegal demotion, wage theft, etc., you effectively have no remedy because of the immunity these corporations now have,” he said by email. “You can support tribes 100%. And the Northern Justice Project does. And also see today’s decision as a travesty for 1000s of Alaska employees.
In place of the old test, Henderson wrote, state judges should use a five-part test adopted by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over Alaska. The four justices in the majority concluded that the benefit of a new ruling outweighs the harm, but Senior Justice Warren Matthews disagreed.“Today’s decision immunizes these companies from the normal enforcement mechanisms built into Alaska’s health, safety, employment, and civil rights statutes, and municipal ordinances of all sorts including tax, planning, zoning, and building codes,” he said. “These laws are of vital importance.