Law360 is providing free access to its coronavirus coverage to make sure all members of the legal community have accurate information in this time of uncertainty and change. Use the form below to sign up for any of our weekly newsletters. Signing up for any of our section newsletters will opt you in to the weekly Coronavirus briefing.
Sign up for our Food & Beverage newsletter
You must correct or enter the following before you can sign up:
Thank You!
Law360 (June 8, 2020, 4:06 PM EDT ) An Alaska Native health corporation condemned the state's human rights commission for rejecting its effort to block commercial fishing in Bristol Bay during the coronavirus pandemic, saying the agency's logic risks setting a bad precedent.
The Alaska State Commission for Human Rights implied that Alaska Natives cannot be discriminated against on the grounds of race or national origin and should reconsider Bristol Bay Area Health Corp.'s complaint that Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy discriminated against Bristol Bay communities, the health corporation said in a June 4 letter.
Commission Executive Director Robert Corbisier's logic could flout future discrimination complaints, the health corporation's counsel said.
"The reasoning in your letter provides ammunition for every employer, bank, landlord, local government, service provider and state agency to now actively discriminate against Alaska Natives since you have unilaterally ... decided that Alaska Natives cannot suffer discrimination within the state," wrote Geoff Strommer and Craig Jacobson of Hobbs Straus Dean & Walker LLP.
The state's law department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In an email, Corbisier said, "The confidentiality statute prohibits commenting on any matter."
In his May 22 letter rejecting the health corporation's complaint — that Dunleavy discriminated by overriding native villages' efforts to block commercial fishing — Corbisier wrote that tribal enrollment is a "political classification," citing the 1974 Supreme Court decision in Morton v. Mancari
."This does not make these tribes, or their members, subject to national origin discrimination," he said.
Corbisier also rejected the complaint on racial grounds, saying Dunleavy's mandate deeming commercial fishery and cannery workers "essential" applies to non-Native and Native fishing villages alike.
"A commission dedicated to human rights should have staff and leadership that views its charge and responsibilities as broadly as possible," Strommer and Jacobson countered, urging Corbisier to let the health corporation's May 13 complaint proceed.
The Bristol Bay health corporation serves 28 villages in southwestern Alaska and has called on Dunleavy to shut down commercial salmon fisheries for the high season of June and July to prevent a potential influx of COVID-19 cases that the hospital says it's not equipped to handle.
The area has a year-round population of 6,500, most of whom are Alaska Native, according to health corporation CEO Robert Clark. During the fishing season the region sees an influx of more than 15,000 commercial fishery and cannery workers from other states, Europe and Africa.
"We're optimistic cautiously but we're still having cases coming into the state here, and it's growing," Clark told Law360 on Monday. "And we have yet to have all the main [fishery] people come in." The nonprofit Samaritan's Purse recently delivered a 30-bed field hospital to the region, he noted.
The corporation's June 4 letter also rejects Corbisier's position that sharing the complaint with the media violated state confidentiality laws.
"The statute places confidentiality obligations on the commission, not on a complainant," counsel wrote, adding, "in the midst of a pandemic, a tribal health organization should never be encouraged by a state agency to keep its valid health concerns 'confidential.'"
In prior comments to Law360, the state law department has defended Alaska's efforts to protect community health during the fishing season, saying "the state is working closely with businesses and industry to ensure operations occur in a safe manner and Alaskans are protected."
Southwestern Alaska has documented four COVID-19 cases and no deaths as of June 7, according to the state. Statewide, there have been 544 positive cases and 10 deaths.
--Editing by Stephen Berg.
Update: This story has been updated with comment from the CEO of Bristol Bay Area Health Corp.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
