Dana Fabe
From Ballotpedia
Dana Anderson Fabe
Prior offices
Alaska Supreme Court
Education
Dana Anderson Fabe was an associate justice of the five-member Alaska Supreme Court. She was appointed to the court in 1996 by Governor Tony Knowles. Fabe is both the first woman to be appointed to Alaska's highest court and the court's first female chief justice. Fabe has served three terms as chief justice. She first served from 2000 to 2003. She began her second term as chief justice in July 2006 and served in that role until July of 2009. She became the chief justice again in July 2012 when Justice Walter Carpeneti stepped down from the position, and her term ended in July 2015.[1][2]
Fabe was retained for a second 10-year term as a Supreme Court justice in 2010.[1]
In October 2015, Fabe announced that she would retire.[3] Her retirement was effective June 1, 2016.
Education
Fabe earned her undergraduate degree from Cornell University in 1973 and her J.D. from Northeastern Law School in 1976.[1]
Professional career
- 1996-2016: Justice, Alaska Supreme Court
- 1988-1996: Judge, Anchorage Superior Court, Third Judicial District Bench
- 1981-1988: Chief public defender, Alaska
- 1977-1981: Staff attorney, Alaska Public Defender Agency
- 1976-1977: Clerk, Justice Edmond W. Burke, Alaska Supreme Court
- 1975-1976: Attorney, Hart, Leavitt & Hall
- 1975: Attorney, Zalkind & Zalkind
- 1975: Attorney, Tim McCall, Esq.
- 1974-1975: Attorney, James H. Goetz, Esq.[1]
Awards and associations
Associations
- Member, National Advisory Council of the American Judicature Society
- Member, Soroptimist International of Cook Inlet
- Member, Cornell Club of Alaska
- Trustee, Anchorage Museum Association
- Chair, Alaska Supreme Court, Civil Rules Committee,
- Chair, Alaska Supreme Court, Judicial Outreach Commission
- Chair, Alaska Court System, Law Day Steering Committee
- Chair, Alaska Teaching Justice Network
- Co-chair, Alaska Bar Association, Gender Equality Section[1]
Elections
2010
| Alaska Supreme Court Justice Retention 2010 General election results | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Votes | Percent |
For retention 
|
100,003 | 53.2% |
| Against retention | 87,843 | 46.8% |
- Click here for 2010 General Election Results from the Alaska Secretary of State.
- Main article: Alaska Judges up for Retention Election in 2010
- See also: Alaska judicial elections, 2010
During Fabe's 2010 election, she was opposed for retention by the private group CitizenLink, the public policy arm of the national Christian group Focus on the Family, weeks before the election. The group sought to have Alaskans vote against her retention. Fabe discussed this issue during the Evaluating Appellate Judges: Preserving Integrity, Maintaining Accountability conference (2011) Conference.[4]
Alaska Judicial Council
The Alaska Judicial Council recommended unanimously (5-0) that she be retained. The AJC conducted a survey of thousands of attorneys in Alaska, who rated Justice Fabe on ten categories. Overall, her rating was 4.3 on a scale of 5, where "5" means "excellent".
- She scored highest (4.4) in the categories of "temperament," "integrity," and "diligence."
- She scored 4.2 or better in all ten categories.
The AJC also surveyed court employees, who rated Fabe 4.6 on a scale of 5 on overall performance.[5]
| Summary categories | Attorney survey | Court employee survey |
|---|---|---|
| Legal ability | 4.4 | - |
| Impartiality | 4.2 | 4.5 |
| Integrity | 4.4 | 4.7 |
| Temperament | 4.6 | 4.8 |
| Diligence | 4.5 | 4.6 |
| Overall | 4.3 | 4.6 |
Noteworthy cases
Alaska parent consent abortion law
In 2007 the Alaska Supreme Court ruled against a law requiring a parent to give consent before a teen could get an abortion. The opinion, authored by Dana Fabe, provided for a parental notification requirement that later became law when brought to the ballot in August of 2008. Fabe was also on the panel of justices that allowed the ballot measure to go to voters.[6]
Political ideology
In October 2012, political science professors Adam Bonica and Michael Woodruff of Stanford University attempted to determine the partisan ideology of state supreme court justices. They created a scoring system in which a score above 0 indicated a more conservative-leaning ideology, while scores below 0 were more liberal.
Fabe received a campaign finance score of -0.87, indicating a liberal ideological leaning. This was more liberal than the average score of -0.11 that justices received in Alaska.
The study was based on data from campaign contributions by the judges themselves, the partisan leaning of those who contributed to the judges' campaigns, or, in the absence of elections, the ideology of the appointing body (governor or legislature). This study was not a definitive label of a justice, but an academic summary of various relevant factors.[7]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Justice Dana Fabe Alaska Supreme Court. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
- Alaska Court System, "Supreme Court Justices Biographies"
- Alaska Judicial Council, "Application for Judicial Appointment Dana Anderson Fabe," October 20, 1995
- Alaska Court System, "Chief Justice Dana Fabe State of the Judiciary," February 6, 2008
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Alaska Judicial Council, "Application for Judicial Appointment Dana Anderson Fabe," October 20, 1995
- ↑ KTUU.com, "Stowers named newest Alaska Supreme Court chief justice," June 3, 2015
- ↑ Annie Feidt, KTOO Public Media, "Alaska Supreme Court Justice Dana Fabe to retire," October 6, 2015
- ↑ Anchorage Daily News, "Allies defend Fabe as justice fights ouster," October 28, 2010
- ↑ Alaska Judicial Council, 2010 retention recommendation for Justice Dana A. Fabe," accessed August 12, 2014
- ↑ Anchorage Daily News, "Allies defend Fabe as justice fights ouster," October 28, 2010
- ↑ Stanford University, "State Supreme Court Ideology and 'New Style' Judicial Campaigns," October 31, 2012
