{"id":121503,"date":"2025-11-26T03:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/letters\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T16:46:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T00:46:27","slug":"letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter: State solicitor general position: Wasteful, frivolous, outrageous"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Oct. 27, the newly installed Attorney General spawned an astonishing sweetheart scheme: importing an Indiana lawyer, with no Alaska ties or experience, presently working remotely, to occupy a freshly invented “State Solicitor General<\/a>” post. The lawyer is now on the state payroll, working remotely and will be relocated later. Implausibly, he claimed Alaska needed this position to supposedly “strengthen the state’s appellate advocacy” and to now seemingly churn out even more superfluous amicus briefs in far-flung courts across the country. While Alaska is drowning in budget shortfalls, classrooms statewide are underfunded and essential programs are starved for resources, this is wasteful and frivolous.<\/p>\n

Worse, it’s an outrageous slap in the face to the Department of Law and other Alaskan attorneys perfectly qualified to do this work. The next Governor should unwind this mess and stop it going forward.<\/p>\n

Gregg Brelsford<\/p>\n

Anchorage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Oct. 27, the newly installed Attorney General spawned an astonishing sweetheart scheme: importing an Indiana lawyer, with no Alaska ties or experience, presently working remotely, to occupy a freshly invented “State Solicitor General<\/a>” post. The lawyer is now on the state payroll, working remotely and will be relocated later. Implausibly, he claimed Alaska needed this position to supposedly “strengthen the state’s appellate advocacy” and to now seemingly churn out even more superfluous amicus briefs in far-flung courts across the country. While Alaska is drowning in budget shortfalls, classrooms statewide are underfunded and essential programs are starved for resources, this is wasteful and frivolous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":121504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,8],"tags":[669],"class_list":["post-121503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters","category-opinion","tag-letter-to-the-editor"],"yoast_head":"\nLetter: State solicitor general position: Wasteful, frivolous, outrageous - Juneau Empire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Letter: State solicitor general position: Wasteful, frivolous, outrageous - Juneau Empire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Oct. 27, the newly installed Attorney General spawned an astonishing sweetheart scheme: importing an Indiana lawyer, with no Alaska ties or experience, presently working remotely, to occupy a freshly invented “State Solicitor General” post. The lawyer is now on the state payroll, working remotely and will be relocated later. Implausibly, he claimed Alaska needed this position to supposedly “strengthen the state’s appellate advocacy” and to now seemingly churn out even more superfluous amicus briefs in far-flung courts across the country. While Alaska is drowning in budget shortfalls, classrooms statewide are underfunded and essential programs are starved for resources, this is wasteful and frivolous.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Juneau Empire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-26T12:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-25T00:46:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/11\/40939144_web1_251126-JUE-Brelsford-letter-typwriter_1.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1333\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Wire Service\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Wire Service\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/\",\"name\":\"Letter: State solicitor general position: Wasteful, frivolous, outrageous - Juneau Empire\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/11\/40939144_web1_251126-JUE-Brelsford-letter-typwriter_1.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-26T12:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-25T00:46:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a55308a565b50b2e68081f4b0ef3c2ef\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/11\/40939144_web1_251126-JUE-Brelsford-letter-typwriter_1.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/11\/40939144_web1_251126-JUE-Brelsford-letter-typwriter_1.jpeg\",\"width\":2000,\"height\":1333,\"caption\":\"Typewriter\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Letter: State solicitor general position: Wasteful, frivolous, outrageous\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/\",\"name\":\"Juneau Empire\",\"description\":\"The Voice of Alaska's Capital Since 1912\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a55308a565b50b2e68081f4b0ef3c2ef\",\"name\":\"Wire Service\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a9113d7c1c3d28e3dc686588377e84a80e4f7eb8b93ac98ec35fd50b3bb1b67?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a9113d7c1c3d28e3dc686588377e84a80e4f7eb8b93ac98ec35fd50b3bb1b67?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Wire Service\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/author\/wire-service\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Letter: State solicitor general position: Wasteful, frivolous, outrageous - Juneau Empire","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Letter: State solicitor general position: Wasteful, frivolous, outrageous - Juneau Empire","og_description":"On Oct. 27, the newly installed Attorney General spawned an astonishing sweetheart scheme: importing an Indiana lawyer, with no Alaska ties or experience, presently working remotely, to occupy a freshly invented “State Solicitor General” post. The lawyer is now on the state payroll, working remotely and will be relocated later. Implausibly, he claimed Alaska needed this position to supposedly “strengthen the state’s appellate advocacy” and to now seemingly churn out even more superfluous amicus briefs in far-flung courts across the country. While Alaska is drowning in budget shortfalls, classrooms statewide are underfunded and essential programs are starved for resources, this is wasteful and frivolous.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/","og_site_name":"Juneau Empire","article_published_time":"2025-11-26T12:30:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-03-25T00:46:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2000,"height":1333,"url":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/11\/40939144_web1_251126-JUE-Brelsford-letter-typwriter_1.jpeg","type":""}],"author":"Wire Service","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Wire Service","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/","url":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/","name":"Letter: State solicitor general position: Wasteful, frivolous, outrageous - Juneau Empire","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/11\/40939144_web1_251126-JUE-Brelsford-letter-typwriter_1.jpeg","datePublished":"2025-11-26T12:30:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-25T00:46:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a55308a565b50b2e68081f4b0ef3c2ef"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/11\/40939144_web1_251126-JUE-Brelsford-letter-typwriter_1.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/11\/40939144_web1_251126-JUE-Brelsford-letter-typwriter_1.jpeg","width":2000,"height":1333,"caption":"Typewriter"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Letter: State solicitor general position: Wasteful, frivolous, outrageous"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/","name":"Juneau Empire","description":"The Voice of Alaska's Capital Since 1912","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a55308a565b50b2e68081f4b0ef3c2ef","name":"Wire Service","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a9113d7c1c3d28e3dc686588377e84a80e4f7eb8b93ac98ec35fd50b3bb1b67?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a9113d7c1c3d28e3dc686588377e84a80e4f7eb8b93ac98ec35fd50b3bb1b67?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Wire Service"},"url":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/author\/wire-service\/"}]}},"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Letter: State solicitor general position: Wasteful, frivolous, outrageous","url":"http:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/2025\/11\/26\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/11\/40939144_web1_251126-JUE-Brelsford-letter-typwriter_1.jpeg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/11\/40939144_web1_251126-JUE-Brelsford-letter-typwriter_1.jpeg"},"articleSection":"Letters to the Editor","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Wire Service"}],"creator":["Wire Service"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Juneau Empire","logo":""},"keywords":["letter to the editor"],"dateCreated":"2025-11-26T12:30:00Z","datePublished":"2025-11-26T12:30:00Z","dateModified":"2026-03-25T00:46:27Z"},"rendered":"<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"wp-parsely-metadata\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"headline\":\"Letter: State solicitor general position: Wasteful, frivolous, outrageous\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.juneauempire.com\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/26\\\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\\\/\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.juneauempire.com\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/26\\\/letter-state-solicitor-general-position-wasteful-frivolous-outrageous\\\/\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.juneauempire.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/12\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/40939144_web1_251126-JUE-Brelsford-letter-typwriter_1.jpeg?w=150&h=150&crop=1\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.juneauempire.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/12\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/40939144_web1_251126-JUE-Brelsford-letter-typwriter_1.jpeg\"},\"articleSection\":\"Letters to the Editor\",\"author\":[{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"name\":\"Wire Service\"}],\"creator\":[\"Wire Service\"],\"publisher\":{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"name\":\"Juneau Empire\",\"logo\":\"\"},\"keywords\":[\"letter to the editor\"],\"dateCreated\":\"2025-11-26T12:30:00Z\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-26T12:30:00Z\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-25T00:46:27Z\"}<\/script>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/juneauempire.com\/p.js"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131553,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121503\/revisions\/131553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}