Supreme Court Justices Speak at UAF
By Colin A. Warren
Photo by Colin A. Warren
Chief Justice Carney publicly pontificates at UAF.
Alaska Supreme Court Justices Sue Carney and Jude Pate spoke at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’s Schaible Auditorium as part of the Arctic Leadership Lecture Series. Donning an ornate knit sweater, Dr. Brandon Boylan briefed the audience on Chief Justice Carney and Justice Pate’s backgrounds. He handed over the microphone to the justices to answer prearranged, long-format questions regarding their work trajectories and leadership. Chief Justice Carney, a Fairbanks resident, addressed the crowd in person while Justice Pate, who splits his time between Sitka, Juneau, and Anchorage, joined the auditorium via Zoom.
Carney was given the leading role in the court just last month, although she has been involved in the Alaska justice system for over 30 years. A graduate of Harvard Law, she first came to Alaska to clerk for then-Justice Jay Rabinowitz. After clerkship, she was hired by Dana Fabe as a public defender. Justice Carney joked, “A big part, I guess, of my professional trajectory seems to have been following her around.” Fabe also served on the Alaska Supreme Court from 1996 to 2016. Governor Bill Walker appointed Carney to the Alaska Supreme Court in May 2016. She presides over the Supreme Court, which, for the first time in the state’s history, has a female majority.
Carney wore a silken ochre blouse that looked as soft as her gentle words as she spieled her ascent up the Alaska justice system. “When I came to Alaska, I figured I’d be here for a year, and then I would move back to America, and that was in 1987, and I haven’t left.” She claimed she never wanted to be a judge, but “other people had different ideas.” After being pressured by many to move from public advocate to the bench, her husband – who was front row in the crowd and bubbled with attention and smiles – went out and bought a bunch of Chinese food, including fortune cookies. The one she grabbed said, “Great honor will be bestowed upon you in the coming year.”
“Fine,” she told her husband, “I will apply.”
She advised the crowd that her path was likely not one they should follow. Instead, Carney suggested they “find something you care deeply about, and you should work towards that.”
She explained the unique power of Alaska, specifically that when you begin working here in a particular field, how quickly you get to know everyone in that field. People here, she went on, don’t need long resumes checking every box of everything that everybody said they needed.
“I think Alaska is still a place where people value very much you as a person, as you present that you come in and you appear to be a competent, dedicated person to the role that you want,” said Justice Carney.
Carney then touched on the importance of restorative justice, which aims to repair harm rather than punish, especially when that can mean people avoiding “terrifying courtrooms.”
According to the Alaska Courts website, “Restorative Justice programs are used by tribes, ethnic groups, and other communities using an often non-Western process that enables members of the group to collectively respond to and repair the harm caused by a crime by talking about what happened, the crime’s aftermath, and its implications for the future and then arriving at a consensus as to the appropriate consequences for the offender.”
This led the discussion to the challenge the Alaska court system faces regarding delays of trials and many overdue cases. The Anchorage Daily News has repeatedly reported on possible violations of our state constitution that guarantees crime victims the right to “timely disposition” of the criminal case. Discussing this issue was one of the highlights of Carney’s State of the Judiciary, which she addressed to the State Legislature just the day before, on February 12, 2025.
Justice Carney capped off her talk by saying that if you want to become a leader, “Be yourself.”
Pate took over the room via Zoom on two large screens looming over both sides of the stage. He earned his law degree from Lewis and Clark University and moved to Sitka in 1993 with “a backpack and a dog and a mountain load of law school debt.” After a career in private practice, Tribal Council law, and as a public defender, Governor Dunleavy appointed him to the Alaska Supreme Court in 2023.
Justice Pate said that when he graduated law school, he wanted to work for either a tribe or a small farmers association in the Midwest because he wanted to work with “people who are closest to the land, water, air and who depend upon it most.”
He also highlighted the strong mentorship that Carney has given him and called her “the conscience of the court.”
Pate’s first clerkship in the state was a tribal court with the Honorable Bill Brady. He explained how Chief Judge Brady didn’t wear a robe or sit higher than anyone else in his court. Pate said Brady’s court was “...like circle justice, like restorative justice. Truly, it was like having a grandfather at the table.” Pate said the most important thing he learned about the law is fairness.
Justice Pate also described the lessons he learned from running a court in Sitka, a 14-mile island. He said he would see the same people in his court everywhere. “These people are part of your community.”
Pate then built up a metaphor between law and music, his other passion. He said he loves and writes and plays music regularly. He then said, “Working…on the Supreme Court is to me like a symphony of words and music because it’s all about writing and getting it right…And the way that a good song or music can be solid. It feels good, feels right. It rings true.” He went on: “...even with a dissent, there’s harmony.”
He spoke a bit about the representation of Alaska Natives, saying, “We have zero Alaska Native judges, and to me, that is a big problem…”
When answering the final question regarding leadership, he followed a similar line of encouragement as Carney, telling the crowd: “There are so many paths to leadership if you follow your heart.”