the burden of these matters from the supreme court, which is therefore able to concentrate on civil matters. However, unlike the Supreme Court of the United States, the Alaska Supreme Court is required to hear appeals in civil cases in the first (and usually last) instance and is not able to exercise its discretion whether to consider appeals previously heard by other appellate courts. Although granting both civil and criminal jurisdiction to the new court of appeals (freeing the supreme court to be purely an appellate court of last resort rather than first instance) had been considered by some proponents in 1980, it was not then believed that the Alaska legislature would be amenable to creating such a court. Decisions The court of appeals usually announces its decisions of cases by issuing memorandum opinions and judgments (MO&Js) and orders summarily ruling on the merits of cases or dismissing them, as well as opinions for official publication (in Westlaw, the Pacific Reporter and the Alaska Reporter). Although the MO&Js and most orders are not published, the MO&Js are available for public inspection at the Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau offices of the clerk of the appellate courts, and the orders are filed in the clerk's Anchorage office. Current MO&Js are also available on the Alaska Court System website. Nevertheless, MO&Js are binding only upon the parties and stare decisis does not apply. See also Judiciary of Alaska References External links Alaska Appellate Courts Alaska Court System Alaska Court of Appeals Cases Alaska state courts State appellate courts of the United States 1980 establishments in Alaska Courts and tribunals established in 1980