State high court justice steps away from abortion lawsuit

The lawsuit against the initiative was filed by Planned Parenthood, and Christen was a board member of Planned Parenthood during the mid-1990s. The Alaska Family Council had sent out e-mail alerts Tuesday and Wednesday, urging its members to contact the state judicial conduct commission and complain that Christen had a conflict of interest and shouldn't be participating in the case.

Christen sent out a notice Wednesday afternoon that she was removing herself from the case. She didn't offer an explanation. The case will go forward, with the other four Supreme Court justices scheduled to hear arguments May 20.

Christen had invited attorneys in the case to file any objections to her participation. Kevin Clarkson, lawyer for the initiative sponsors, responded with an objection last month.

Planned Parenthood didn't take any position on whether Christen should be involved in the case, although it did give the court a list of situations where other judges with comparable past affiliations did not step down from their cases.

Clover Simon, vice president of Planned Parenthood of Alaska, said Wednesday that Christen is probably a very fair judge but that her decision to step aside will remove any potential cloud over the Supreme Court's decision in the case.

The Alaska Judicial Conduct Commission had received a barrage of phone calls and e-mails after the Alaska Family Council urged its members to object to Christen.

"Judge Christen has an obvious conflict on this case and she should recuse or remove herself from it. Ideology aside, judges are called to remove themselves from cases even if there is the appearance of impropriety and act in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and the impartiality of the judiciary," said the e-mail alert the family council sent its members on Tuesday.

Christen was appointed last year to the Supreme Court by then-Gov. Sarah Palin. The Alaska Family Council had lobbied hard against the appointment because of Christen's previous association with Planned Parenthood.

Interviewed hours before Christen decided to step aside from the case, the Alaska Judicial Conduct Commission's executive director said her preliminary feeling was that the facts did not require Christen to disqualify herself.

Alaska law lays out several specific reasons for a judge to be disqualified. Those include that the judge has a direct financial interest in the matter, is a witness in the case or is a close relative of someone in the case. It also says judges can't rule on a case in which they feel, for any reason, they can't be fair.

The lawyer for the initiative sponsors, Clarkson, wrote in his court filing that he had no doubt Christen would attempt to make a fair ruling. But according to the code of conduct, judges should avoid even the appearance of impropriety, and act in way that promotes public confidence in the judiciary, Clarkson wrote.

Christen was on the board at a time when a Planned Parenthood representative testified against a bill in the Legislature to require parental consent for abortions, Clarkson emphasized, which was a precursor to the current fight over whether doctors must notify parents before a girl under 18 can get an abortion.

Marla Greenstein, director of the judicial conduct commission, said several factors would need to be considered in weighing a reasonable appearance of impropriety. That would include the fact that Christen hadn't been on the Planned Parenthood board for more than a decade, she said, and that the case is about whether language in the initiative is misleading, rather than about the abortion issue itself.

She said the code of conduct makes it clear judges should not step aside from cases unless they have to. That's meant to prevent judges from easily removing themselves from cases that are difficult or controversial with the public, she said.

Planned Parenthood is asking the Supreme Court to invalidate the initiative after a Superior Court judge ruled it could be on the August primary ballot.