► U.S. Judge Sharon Gleason of Anchorage, AK; one of the Good Gals Print

U.S. Judge Sharon Gleason of Anchorage, AK; one of the Good Gals

 

The State of Alaska provided Sharon Louise Gleason a law license in 1983 after she graduated from the University of California Davis School of Law.

 

In one matter, Judge Gleason presided over a case involving Donald Trump’s executive order that reversed bans on offshore drilling in massive parts of the Arctic Ocean and canyons the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Earthjustice was the primary plaintiff in representing numerous environmental groups that sued the Trump administration and The American Petroleum Institute over the April 2017 executive order reversing the drilling bans. At issue in the case was the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

 

In tossing out Trump’s so-called executive order, Judge Gleason said in part:

 

“The wording of President Obama’s 2015 and 2016 withdrawals indicates that he intended them to extend indefinitely, and therefore be revocable only by an act of Congress.”

 

In 2015, Obama halted exploration in coastal areas of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas and the Hanna Shoal, an important area for walrus. In late 2016, he withdrew most other potential Arctic Ocean lease areas — about 98 percent of the Arctic outer continental shelf. The bans were intended to protect polar bears, walruses, ice seals and Alaska Native villages that depend on the animals. (Denny Walsh)

 

Kudos to Judge Gleason for having the courage and fortitude to tell Trump that he is not endowed with unilateral authority to undue protections put into effect by President Obama when the sole remedy lies with Congress.

 

As we speak (ca. April 2019), Judge Gleason continues to sit U.S. District Court for the Alaska District in Anchorage, Alaska.