ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
United States District Court, District of Alaska (2022)
Sam MacDuffie
In United States v. Alaska, 608 F. Supp. 3d 802 (D. Alaska 2022), the court granted the United
States’ motion for preliminary injunction of an Alaskan state order allowing any Alaskan to gillnet
fish in the Kuskokwim River. (Id. at 814). The federal Alaska National Interest Lands
Conservation Act (ANILCA) holds that rural subsistence users be given priority to fish on federal
lands and waters within Alaska, including the Kuskokwim. (Id. at 806). Alaska passed an
Emergency Order (the Order) which opened gillnet fishing along the Kuskokwim to all Alaskans,
not just those federally authorized under ANILCA. (Id. at 805). The United States, along with
intervenor Kuskokwim River Inter–Tribal Fish Commission (the Commission), claimed that the
Order was preempted by ANILCA under the Supremacy Clause and sought a preliminary
injunction. (Id). The court granted the motion, finding that the United States and the Commission
met all four elements in favor of preliminary injunction: likelihood of success on the merits,
irreparable harm, balance of equities, and public interest. (Id. at 806). First, the court found the
claim was likely to succeed on the merits because Alaska did not make any argument as to how
the Order did not conflict with federal policy under the Supremacy Clause, instead arguing
insufficiently that ANILCA was invalid under the Appointments Clause and the Administrative
Procedure Act. (Id. at 806). The court also found irreparable harm based on both 1) the federal
government’s ability to enforce its rural subsistence policy on the Kuskokwim, and 2) uncertainty
and confusion that could dissuade rural subsistence users from legal fishing opportunities. (Id. at
811). Finally, the court found that allowing a state to enforce the Order in violation of the
Supremacy Clause was neither equitable nor in the public interest. (Id. at 812–13). The district
court therefore granted the preliminary injunction of an Alaskan state order allowing any Alaskan
to gillnet fish in the Kuskokwim River, based on finding for the United States and the Commission
on all four relevant factors. (Id. at 814).
