Former state Rep. David Eastman has won his lawsuit against Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the state of Alaska, successfully challenging the governor’s decision to allow a bill to become law last year.
In the suit, Eastman — a Republican from Wasilla — challenged the constitutionality of Senate Bill 189, citing a clause of the Alaska Constitution that requires lawmakers to limit bills to a single subject.
In the final hours of the 2024 legislative session, lawmakers combined several other bills into SB 189. Dunleavy and the executive branch had no role in the crafting of the bill, but because the governor allowed the bill to become law without his signature, the suit named him as a defendant.
On Tuesday, Juneau Superior Court Judge Larry Woolford signed an order declaring that the bill “was passed by the 33rd Alaska Legislature in violation of Article II, Section 13 of the Alaska Constitution and is therefore void.”
Woolford’s order also awards Eastman $20,250 in costs and attorney fees. Eastman was represented in the suit by attorney Joe Geldhof.
The legal victory has limited immediate impact because lawmakers this year re-passed all the bills that were combined into Senate Bill 189. Woolford’s order “does not address and has no effect on subsequent legislation repealing and reenacting the provisions of SB 189.”
Its biggest impact may be to constrain current and future legislators, preventing them from repeating the kinds of legislative logrolling that have become commonplace in the final days of each two-year legislative cycle.
Because bills die at the end of the legislative cycle and few bills pass both House and Senate, it has become common for lawmakers to make last-hours amendments that combine bills in an effort to speed them across the legislative finish line.
“We are pleased to have resolved the Eastman v. Dunleavy case, which challenged a bill on the grounds of violating the single subject rule,” Attorney General Treg Taylor said by email on Tuesday.
“Following the filing of the lawsuit, the Department of Law sought to provide the Legislature with an opportunity to rectify this by breaking the bill into separate pieces of legislation. Fortunately, the Legislature successfully completed their work prior to the conclusion of the case, avoiding confusion on the laws enacted,” Taylor said.
No appeals are expected.
