Palin picks Anchorage judge for top court

Frontiersman

PALMER — Judge Eric Smith won’t be heading to the Supreme Court after all.

Smith, who currently serves on the Superior Court in Palmer, had applied to replace justice Warren W. Matthews, who will retire April 5. Six attorneys and judges had applied for the seat.

On Feb. 3, the Alaska Judicial Council elected to forward along applications from Smith and Anchorage Superior Court Judge Morgan Christen to Gov. Sarah Palin. By state law, the governor is tasked with appointing judges. In a press release dated March 4, Palin announced she’d chosen Christen.

“I have every confidence that Judge Christen has the experience, intellect, wisdom and character to be an outstanding Supreme Court justice,” Palin said in the release.

Reached by e-mail, Smith, who generally is reluctant, as a sitting judge, to speak to the media, had no comment to offer.

His colleague on the bench, Superior Court Judge Beverly Cutler offered a brief response to a similar e-mail inquiry.

“I have worked closely with both Judge Smith and Judge Christen. I respect and revere them both. They both are smart, caring, judicious and extremely hard working,” Cutler wrote.

Either, she said, would have made an excellent justice.

Christen, 47, came to the Superior court in 2002 and has been the Anchorage presiding judge since 2005. Smith, by contrast, has been on the Superior court bench since 1996.

The Alaska Supreme Court is the highest appeals court in Alaska. They hold court in Anchorage, Juneau and Fairbanks.

State law bars justices from serving past the age of 70. Matthews will reach that age the day he retires.