Lieutenant Governor Appeals 07WATR Decision

November 7, 2007, Anchorage, Alaska - Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell on Friday, November 2, formally appealed a Superior Court decision on an initiative relating to water and mining. After denial of certification for the first initiative (07WATR), the sponsors won summary judgment in the Superior Court that overturned the lieutenant governor’s decision. Though the lieutenant governor has complied with the court order to produce signature booklets for the sponsors, he appealed the lower court's decision to the Alaska Supreme Court to obtain finality on the legal question involved.

Specifically, the Alaska Supreme Court has been asked to decide whether the initiative, which prohibits certain uses of water by mining companies, represents an appropriation of the water resource from one user group to another. If so, the law prohibits this kind of appropriation from being made via an initiative, as Alaska's Constitution reserves such appropriations of public resources to the legislature.