Alaska's AG: His overreach exceeds his grasp
Alaska’s Temporary Attorney General attacked the Anchorage school board in a grandstanding exercise in November, falsely claiming its members violated their oath of office and did not support the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution.
He made his accusations before checking the facts, regurgitating a distorted right-wing blog post written by the daughter of the woman hired to head the new private school Cox is starting in Anchorage.
It was straight from “They’re eating the dogs! They’re eating the cats!” playbook of far-right hysterics. The goal is always the same—generate outrage.
Cox, 48, quietly retreated from his lies about the Anchorage school district when confronted with the truth, but failed to apologize for his behavior.
For that episode alone, the temporary general should be rejected by the Legislature when he faces a confirmation vote in the upcoming legislative session.
Cox only became a member of the Alaska Bar Association last May and has greatly exaggerated his ties to Alaska.
The school district handled Cox the right way by refusing to cower to his nastygram.
Alaska Airlines now finds itself targeted in a similar fashion by the temporary AG whose overreach exceeds his grasp.
With zero evidence, Cox claims Alaska Airlines is coddling criminals and making it harder to prosecute offenders.
As he did in the Anchorage hoo-hah he propagated, Cox is quoting things out of context that appeared on social media.
In a letter to Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci, Cox charged that the company is not allowing its employees to cooperate with law enforcement officers.
“Most notably, recently reported signage displayed to employees instructs, ‘If a law enforcement officer or government official asks you for guest information, stop, don’t comply,” said Cox.
That’s not all the sign said, however.
Temporary general Cox chose to ignore the words that followed: “Notify your supervisor immediately.”
Those four words change the entire message. They expose his argument as an empty one, so he left them out. Perhaps this trick worked for him in Texas.
Cox also failed to mention that the poster said employees should direct non-urgent matters to the airline’s legal department.
This is in keeping with the Alaska Airlines Code of Conduct, which informs employees: “If you receive a subpoena, letter, e-mail, phone call, personal visit, or other request for information from a government or law enforcement agency or an outside lawyer, contact the legal division immediately for guidance.”
That is the only reasonable position for the airline to take, instructing employees to follow the chain of command. Only a lunkhead would think otherwise.
Cox distorts the airline’s code, however, to claim the document “seems” to forbid employees from cooperating with law enforcement.
To be blunt, he seems to be lying, another reason why he should be encouraged to pursue a classical job in the private sector.
As a newcomer to Alaska law, Cox may not understand that privacy is a fundamental right under the Alaska Constitution. Alaska Airlines has no business handing over private information about passengers without a clear legal directive.
Meanwhile, the airline released a statement saying that it cooperates with law enforcement and has always done so.
In addition, it said the poster Cox found so objectionable did not go through the normal channels when it was distributed this past summer and was removed from Alaska Airlines stations in September.
The poster was harmless, but the airline is in the public relations business and political hacks seized upon it as a slap at Trump.
“Alaska Airlines takes our legal obligations seriously and is committed to following all applicable laws and working cooperatively with local, state and federal authorities,” the airline said in a statement quoted by the Anchorage Daily News. “We have not adopted nor implemented any policies and practices that discourage employees from cooperating with law enforcement. Every employee receives training on the correct policies and procedures for engaging with law enforcement in a manner consistent with legal process and company guidelines.”
As the co-founder of a proposed private school in Anchorage promoting wisdom, truth, beauty and other elements of “classical education,” Cox likes to preach to other people about their behavior and bemoan the qualities that he claims are lacking in public schools.
“We have a motto of more classical, more saints. And that means that we want an academically rigorous school and one that nurtures virtue and faith,” Cox said on a podcast promoting the Hillsdale College approach to education that his school will use.
Quoting documents out of context and distorting clear language of others to create and inflame controversy are elements of a classical con job. That’s what we have here.
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