Press Release

State Asks Alaska Supreme Court to Reverse Ruling on Correspondence Study Program

June 17, 2024

(Anchorage, AK) – Today, the State of Alaska filed its Reply Brief in its appeal of the Alaska Superior Court’s ruling in April, which found the correspondence study program unconstitutional and sent parents of students in such programs scrambling for answers.

The State has asked the Alaska Supreme Court to reverse the Superior Court ruling because it fails to properly apply the standard for holding that a statute is facially unconstitutional. The brief explains: “This standard recognizes that even if a statute “as applied” in some situations “might be unconstitutional,” the judiciary must respect the law’s permissible applications and not simply throw the good out with the bad. There are more refined tools—including a properly filed as-applied challenge—that allow courts to “avoid interfering with the lawmaking process any more than is necessary.”

“The State’s briefing exposes the absurdity of the lower court’s decision,” said Alaska Deputy Attorney General Cori Mills. “For decades, State money has been spent on correspondence schools using private vendors to ensure students who don’t (or can’t) attend a traditional neighborhood school still have access to a top-quality public education. The lower court’s decision upended that decades-long precedent, ignoring the vast majority of constitutional spending on educational materials and services purchased by parents to support their child’s public education.”

The State has teamed up with a non-profit legal organization who reached out on the case offering legal support for free.

“The absurdity of the decision has garnered national attention, so much so that First Liberty, a non-profit legal organization, experienced in constitutional issues, reached out to the State to offer legal assistance on a pro bono basis. With the understanding that the State is firmly in the driver’s seat on what and how this case is argued, it seemed prudent to take the offer of free help from other legal experts. Between the team of lawyers within the department, the expertise of Mr. Elbert Lin, and the pro bono assistance, the State has a deep bench of high-quality lawyers on its side to ensure the Alaska Supreme Court has the benefit of hearing the strongest and best arguments on behalf of the State and all the families impacted by the lower court’s decision,” Mills said.

Attorney Elbert Lin, of the law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth, has been collaborating with our team on this case since its inception. He has experience working for and with other state attorneys general on education matters and on cases defending state laws from constitutional challenges, as well as experience arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court. We have asked Mr. Lin to take the lead in arguing the case in our high court, but we continue to actively oversee and manage the case.

"I have been honored to participate in this important case for Alaska since its inception, working with highly experienced attorneys at the Alaska Attorney General's Office,” said attorney Elbert Lin. “Having worked in the West Virginia Attorney General's office for several years, I have great admiration for the work of assistant attorneys general who choose public service careers. Although I worked behind the scenes in the superior court, I've been asked to take the lead role at the Alaska Supreme Court, working in close collaboration with the team assigned to provide the best representation possible for the State of Alaska and the Department of Education & Early Development. I have enjoyed our collaboration and look forward to arguing the case at the end of June."

Oral argument is set for 10 a.m. June 27. Read the reply brief here.

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Department Media Contacts: Communications Director Patty Sullivan at patty.sullivan@alaska.gov or (907) 269-6368. Information Officer Sam Curtis at sam.curtis@alaska.gov or (907) 269-6269.