Sharon Gleason: Chief Judge of the US District Court for Alaska

East Anchorage Book Club with Andrew Gray

Judge Sharon Gleason is the Chief Judge of the United State District Court for the District of Alaska. She was appointed by Barack Obama in 2012 after serving 11 years as a judge on the Alaska Superior Court. She is the first woman to serve as a federal judge for Alaska.
On March 29, 2024, she released a 29-page decision against the fishing of the Kuskokwim River by urban fishermen, reserving subsistence fishing only to rural Alaskans. Read more here.
Her fame as a federal judge stems from important environment rulings including her 2015 ruling that fined Greenpeace $2500 per hour that they blocked Shell Oil icebreaker from leaving Portland to head to the arctic for drilling operations. In 2019 she found that President Trump unlawfully sought to open the Chukchi Sea for offshore drilling; that same year she also blocked road construction between King Cove and Cold Bay. And in November 2023 she upheld the Biden administration’s approval of the Willow project rejecting Inupiat and environmental claims against it.

This interview came about after I gave a special order on the House floor in honor of the country of Estonia’s Independence Day. The most famous Estonian-Alaskan is Judge Sharon Gleason. She is the granddaughter of Timotheus Grünthal – he was an Estonian politician serving in the Estonian parliament; Judge Gleason’s Grandmother was Vera Poska-Grünthal was a leading Estonian Feminist and a founder of the International Federation of Women’s Lawyers.
Vera’s father, Judge Gleason's great-grandfather, was Jaan Poska who was the first ethnic Estonian admitted to the bar in Tallinn, the capitol of Estonia. Poska served as mayor of Tallinn from 1913-1917 and then became the governor of the Autonomous Governorate of Estonia in 1917. The Republic of Estonia was formally declared on 24 of February 1918 and Judge Gleason’s Great Grandfather was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. He negotiated the Treaty of Tartu with Russia in 1920, and he was a drafter of the Estonian Constitution. So our guest today is a direct descendent of a founding father of Estonia.

This interview was recorded on Zoom and there was a sound issue with Judge Gleason’s microphone. I apologize for the buzzing sound.