Joe Miller's "Judicial" Record Reviewed

In my last post, I cited information from Joe Miller's website* about his legal positions in Alaska.  I had questions about being a magistrate and his language that he "stepped down from the bench" to run for office.    [* I also had stuff from McAdams website]

I emailed my questions to an attorney friend who did not want to be quoted but wrote back, "it is so puffed up that I would puke if it had been written about myself." 

I normally wouldn't post unsupported opinion like this (he did have support in the email), but it seems the vehemence that's expressed is as important as the facts.  There is a VERY STRONG personal reaction to Miller's candidacy by many as mentioned in the previous post.

And besides, more detailed factual information came from another source.

akbrite left a comment on the previous post with a link to Wickersham's Conscience where the same questions were raised AND answered:

Joe Miller has never been a judge; he has been a magistrate. A state judge is appointed by the Governor from candidates proposed by the Alaska Judicial Council. Joe Miller has been a candidate for a judgeship: the superior court in 2005, the seat Judge Robert Downes now holds. He withdrew his name just before the bar poll results came out: that’s usually an indication he was panned by his peers. A magistrate is appointed by the court to do ministerial tasks. A federal magistrate is much the same.

In his bio, Miller says, “In 2004, Miller stepped down from the bench to run for State Representative.” He was never on the bench; he was never a judge. He ran for the superior court, although he quit before he got fairly started.
He says in his campaign website he has lived in Alaska for 16 years. He told the Judicial Council in March 2005 he had “been an Alaska resident for 10 years, and has practiced law for 9 years. He graduated from Yale Law School in 1995.” So if he graduated from Yale in May or June of 1995, in March of 2005 he had lived in Alaska for something less than ten years. And in 2010 he’s lived in Alaska 15 years, not 16 years. Yale is in New Haven, Connecticut, not Alaska.
Miller also says in his bio, “He has represented clients in a wide variety of cases, a number of which have gone all the way to the Alaska Supreme Court.” As it turns out, “a number” is two reported Alaska Supreme Court decisions, one when he was part-timing at the Borough Attorneys’ Office and one domestic relations case.

 The rest of the Wickersham's Conscience post does a similar analysis of Miller's statements on offshore drilling, the Constitution, the Alaska economy, and a few other issues.