Sharon Louise Gleason (born October 24, 1957) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as the Chief United States district judge of the

U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska The United States District Court for the District of Alaska (in case citations, D. Alaska) is a federal court in the Ninth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appealed to the F ...

. Appointed by President Barack Obama in 2012, Gleason is the first woman to serve as a federal judge in the District of Alaska. She was previously a state court judge on the

Alaska Superior Court The Alaska Court System is the unified, centrally administered, and totally state-funded judicial system for the state of Alaska. The Alaska District Courts are the primary misdemeanor trial courts, the Alaska Superior Courts are the primary felony ...

from 2001 to 2012.

Early life and education

Gleason was born in 1957 in Rochester, New York. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts degree ''magna cum laude''. From 1979 to 1980, Gleason studied at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She then attended the UC Davis School of Law, graduating in 1983 with a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

degree and Order of the Coif honors.

Professional career

After law school, Gleason was a

law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...

for chief justice

Edmond W. Burke Edmond Wayne Burke (September 7, 1935 – March 31, 2020) was a justice of the Alaska Supreme Court from April 4, 1975, to December 1, 1993. He also severed a term as chief justice from November 16, 1981, to September 30, 1984. Born in Ukiah, Cal ...

of the Alaska Supreme Court from 1983 to 1984. She was in private practice at the Alaska law firm Reese, Rice & Volland from 1984 to 1995, and as a sole legal practitioner from 1995 to 2001. In 2001, Alaska governor Tony Knowles appointed Gleason to be an

judge. She then was retained by Alaska voters in 2004 and 2010. She is a former musician and member of the

Anchorage Symphony Orchestra The Anchorage Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is a professional symphony orchestra located in Anchorage, Alaska. Randall Craig Fleischer was the Music Director until his passing in 2020. Elizabeth Schulze is the current Artistic Advisor and Chief Conducto ...

Federal judicial service

On April 6, 2011, President Barack Obama nominated Gleason to the United States District Court for the District of Alaska to a vacancy that had been created by Judge

John W. Sedwick John W. Sedwick (born March 13, 1946) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Alaska. Education and career Sedwick was born in 1946 in Kittanning, Pennsylvania. He attended Dartmouth Co ...

, who assumed senior status in March 2011. The nomination occurred on the recommendation of

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Mark Begich. On September 8, 2011, the Senate Judiciary Committee reported her nomination to the Senate floor by a voice vote. The United States Senate confirmed Gleason by an 87–8 vote on November 15, 2011. She received her commission on January 4, 2012. She became Chief Judge on January 1, 2022.

Notable cases

*On July 31, 2015, Gleason ruled that environmental group Greenpeace USA would be fined $2,500 for each hour its activists block a Shell Oil (A Dutch owned corporation) icebreaking ship from leaving

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

by dangling from the

St. Johns Bridge The St. Johns Bridge is a steel suspension bridge that spans the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States, between the Cathedral Park neighborhood in North Portland and the Linnton and Northwest Industrial neighborhoods in Northwest ...

. The Shell icebreaker was part of a controversial move by Congress to allow a foreign-based corporation to drill in the Arctic. However by September 2015 Shell had abandoned their attempts to establish drilling operations in Alaska, citing dangerous conditions, high costs (over $7 billion spent), and little evidence of oil in the areas they had attempted to explore. *On March 29, 2019, Gleason issued two additional rulings related to Alaskan environmental issues. One ruling found that the administration of Donald Trump unlawfully sought to open the

Chukchi Sea Chukchi Sea ( rus, Чуко́тское мо́ре, r=Chukotskoye more, p=tɕʊˈkotskəjə ˈmorʲɪ), sometimes referred to as the Chuuk Sea, Chukotsk Sea or the Sea of Chukotsk, is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west b ...

to offshore drilling activities. This area had previously been withdrawn from consideration while Barack Obama was president. Gleason's finding hinged on the fact that the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953 permits a President to withdraw certain areas from eligibility for offshore drilling, but only Congress can add such areas. A separate ruling blocked the Trump administration's attempts to use a land transfer to facilitate construction of a road through a federally-designated wetland in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. The road would have connected the towns of

King Cove King Cove ( ale, Agdaaĝux̂) is a city in Aleutians East Borough, Alaska, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 938, up from 792 in 2000, but at the 2020 census this had reduced to 757. Geography King Cove is located at . ...

and Cold Bay. A different land transfer plan had already been rejected in 2013 by the Department of the Interior. Secretary

Sally Jewell Sarah Margaret "Sally" Roffey Jewell (born February 21, 1956) is a British-American businessperson who served as the 51st United States secretary of the interior in the Obama administration from 2013 to 2017. Jewell was born in London and moved ...

, in announcing the rejection, indicated that construction of the road would cause "irreversible damage not only to the Refuge itself, but to the wildlife that depend on it". *On August 18, 2021, Gleason vacated permits issued by the Trump Administration for ConocoPhillips' Willow Project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. According to the decision, the permits relied on a report by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service that lacked specifics regarding mitigation measures for polar bears.

References

External links

* *
Senate Judiciary Committee Questionnaire
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gleason, Sharon L. 1957 births Living people Alaska state court judges Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Alaska Lawyers from Anchorage, Alaska Lawyers from Rochester, New York United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama University of California, Davis alumni Washington University in St. Louis alumni Women in Alaska politics 21st-century American judges 21st-century American women judges