State v. American Civil Liberties Union

Alaska law on ripeness historically has kept the barriers to the courtroom low in order to favor access for Alaska's citizens to Alaska courts. In this, we have pointedly differed from our counterparts in the federal courts. Today's opinion, relying on federal law that we have previously declined to follow, retreats from that long-held stance. While that fact alone is troubling enough, today's opinion is made more problematic by its devaluation of the protections that the Alaska Constitution offers to the citizens of this state, its overstatement of the decisional risks of considering the…