Alaska won’t be severed from the United States by a vote of the people anytime soon, in part because Alaskans may never be allowed to vote on the question. Secession is “an unconstitutional end,” the Alaska Supreme Court ruled last week in an opinion that upholds a 2007 decision by then-Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell who refused to certify a secession-related ballot initiative.

“It’s obvious that we cannot rely on the courts to protect our right to choose our own destiny,” says Scott Kohlhaas, the state chairman of the Alaska Libertarian Party and the man who took the state to court after Parnell refused to certify his ballot initiative. (Readers expecting the Alaska Independence Party can sit tight for a few paragraphs.)

Kohlhaas is now a three-time loser in the effort to get a secession question to the statewide ballot. But because he’s a Libertarian with an uppercase ‘L’ this latest court opinion seems to only add fuel to his fire. He believes “in liberty right down to the individual” and a ruling that says the United States must be united forever just doesn’t sit well with Kohlhaas—especially when it grates so abrasively against his right to petition the government. “I would warn people in Puerto Rico and the Marshall Islands,” Kohlhaas says. “I would warn them not to flirt with us. They have to realize that if they come in, they can never leave; it’s like one of those roach motels.”

Kohlhaas's language isn’t always incendiary. The words on the petition the court shot down are downright diplomatic compared to his pest-trap analogy. The ballot question would not even ask voters to leave the United States behind.

Instead, it would’ve asked this: “Shall the State of Alaska seek changes in existing law and Constitutional provisions to authorize it to obtain independence from the United States of America?”

If that sounds a bit watered down, it’s because Libertarians came up with that language after two previous secession questions (in 1998 and 2003) were rejected by two previous lieutenant governors. Kohlhaas figured an Alaska Supreme Court decision on the 2003 petition pointed the way toward a legal vote to direct the state of Alaska to seek changes in the U.S. Constitution and other relevant law. (Kohlhaas calls it a “vote for a vote” and his initiative would have Alaskans decide the question every ten years.)

In theory, other states might follow the trail blazed by Alaskans. If the 50 states agreed to allow secession votes by individual states, then a dam set by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1869 might break.

Here’s a few bricks of that dam, from an case called White v. Texas:

“The act which consummated [Texas’] admission into the Union was something more than a compact; it was the incorporation of a new member into the political body. And it was final. The union between Texas and other States was as complete, as perpetual, and as indissoluble as the union between the original States. There was no place for reconsideration, or revocation, except through revolution, or through consent of the States.”

“That last part, ‘consent of the states,’ is where we thought we had an avenue,” Kohlhaas says.

Kohlhaas says the Libertarians have about 10,000 registered members and party leaders are currently focused on recruiting candidates for the August primary and the general election in November. The party isn’t circulating any petitions at the moment, but over the years Kohlhaas has circulated about a dozen in Alaska. Voters might remember his failed attempt to repeal Anchorage’s curfew law. Libertarians were also a big part of the initiative that established Alaska’s medical marijuana law.

Kohlhaas says he’s worked on dozens of initiatives and referendums in the Lower 48. He’s heard of Lower 48 groups seeking independence or sovereignty, but says he’s never corresponded with any of them. He’s mostly a party guy, working Outside petitions when other Libertarians need help repealing or establishing a law.

This petitioning stuff is near and dear to Kohlhaas’s heart. Initiative and referendum are the only tools people have, he says, “when the legislature won’t budge” and those tools must be protected to either enact good laws or do away with the bad ones. He’s disappointed the tools have been dulled by the court decisions, past and present.

“Because the courts decided on a bond issue in Texas in the 1860s then we can’t vote on independence in this century or in any century,” he says.

For this latest grasp at independence—or at “a vote for a vote”—Kohlhaas worked with Lynette Clark, current chair of Alaska Independence Party and Linda Winkleman, Clark’s immediate predecessor as the AIP’s leader. Both women are mentioned in the lawsuit for filing the originally application that was rejected by Parnell. Kohlhaas says he wanted to forge an alliance with AIP in preparation for a statewide circulation drive.

“Sponsorship is one of the few plums you have to hand out,” he says, adding that “History” will record that Clark and Winkleman petitioned the state to get the initiative on the ballot.

And he says “History” with an uppercase “H”—as if his failed appeal is merely a setback, or the first chink in a giant dam, and one of many.

“Until you called, I was thinking that History would be the only one to pay attention to these things, outside of our little group,” he says.

scott@anchoragepress.com