In March 2011, five members of the Alaska Peacemakers Militia, including leader Francis Cox, were arrested for planning to kill Alaska State Troopers and a federal judge. The group—which had stockpiled firearms and explosives—advocated the violent secession of Alaska from the United States. Five days after Cox and his co-conspirators were arrested, Alaska Citizens Militia "supply sergeant" William Fulton disappeared—but not before signing over his two houses to Ross, who in 2009 shared the stage with Cox at a Peacemakers meeting. In July 2011, it was reported that authorities were looking for Fulton, who they believe supplied weapons to Cox’s militia.

Ross opposed federal efforts to protect polar bears and beluga whales during a 2009 confirmation hearing before Alaska’s Senate Judiciary Committee, stating, “We were promised in the statehood contract that we would get a certain percentage of the resources we would develop in the state and then suddenly the federal government seems to be closing the door and preventing us from reaching those resources.”

The Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) strongly opposed Ross’ nomination as attorney general because he had actively advocated against giving native Alaskans a preference in using certain bodies of waters for subsistence fishing (over those who fish for sport). AFN Co-Chairman Tim Towarak said then-Governor Sarah Palin’s nomination of Ross was equivalent to “rubbing our face on the ground, saying, 'Here, take this.’”

During Ross’ 2009 confirmation hearings for the position of Alaska Attorney General, a woman testified that Ross made sexist comments at an Alaska Women and Children in Crisis panel discussion. Ross reportedly said that domestic violence was on the rise because the equal rights movement had emasculated men. He also opined that many allegations of domestic abuse are fabricated. Former Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Richard Burton called for Ross to withdraw his nomination and wrote a letter saying that Ross “speak[s] and act[s] like the kind of bully I met many times when responding to domestic violence calls—some of the most dangerous situations police officers are often in.”

In April 2008, Ross emailed then-Governor Sarah Palin to ask for “a personal favor.” Ross wanted the governor to get Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to issue a permit to a construction company owned by his friend, Rex Close. DNR had initially denied the permit because of environmental concerns (Close wanted to place an asphalt plant in the flood plain of a river). Palin had Randall Ruaro, her special assistant, look into the matter. Shortly thereafter, the Department of Transportation (DOT) helped Close appeal the permit denial. DOT officials told Palin’s staff that they were “very confident” the appeal would be successful. Palin told a staffer that she “really couldn't follow all that Ross was requesting help on” but had her staff work to assist him nonetheless.

In April 2008, Ross emailed then-Governor Sarah Palin to ask for “a personal favor.” Ross wanted the governor to get Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to issue a permit to a construction company owned by his friend, Rex Close. DNR had initially denied the permit because of environmental concerns (Close wanted to place an asphalt plant in the flood plain of a river). Palin had Randall Ruaro, her special assistant, look into the matter. Shortly thereafter, the Department of Transportation (DOT) helped Close appeal the permit denial. DOT officials told Palin’s staff that they were “very confident” the appeal would be successful. Palin told a staffer that she “really couldn't follow all that Ross was requesting help on” but had her staff work to assist him nonetheless.

In April 2008, Ross emailed then-Governor Sarah Palin to ask for “a personal favor.” Ross wanted the governor to get Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to issue a permit to a construction company owned by his friend, Rex Close. DNR had initially denied the permit because of environmental concerns (Close wanted to place an asphalt plant in the flood plain of a river). Palin had Randall Ruaro, her special assistant, look into the matter. Shortly thereafter, the Department of Transportation (DOT) helped Close appeal the permit denial. DOT officials told Palin’s staff that they were “very confident” the appeal would be successful. Palin told a staffer that she “really couldn't follow all that Ross was requesting help on” but had her staff work to assist him nonetheless.

Ross, who has frequently opposed the efforts of Alaska’s Native population to obtain greater autonomy, complained in December 1996, “People are being taught to be more proud of being a Native than of being an Alaskan.”

In December 1991, Ross awarded a student artist an “'A' for courage” for a project consisting of “a hooded and robed stick figure of a KKK member, bearing a cross in one hand and a flag in the other.” He criticized an African American student who objected to the “art” project, saying she “was obviously letting her inner hostilities rise to the surface.” In the editorial, Ross claimed that his membership in sham civil rights organization Congress on Racial Equality precluded him from being a racist.

In 1991 at a meeting of Dads Against Discrimination at an Anchorage, Alaska Denny’s restaurant, Ross was overheard saying, “If a guy can’t rape his wife…who’s he gonna rape?” and “There wouldn't be an issue with domestic violence if women would learn to keep their mouth shut.”

After the National Park Service (NPS) expressed concern about “people vs. bear confrontations” at an Alaska fishing camp, Ross wrote a 1990 op-ed entitled, “Bears Will Be Bears—Can We Allow It?” In the piece, he suggested, “All you have to do is shoot a few of the bears! The cost of the ammo should be less than ten dollars. You can then tack those bear hides up on the wall of your headquarters, which would look real nice, and the rest of the bears would get the message to leave people alone … But when, through its unnatural policies, the NPS causes the bears to feel that human beings cannot or will not fight back, I draw the line. Bears need to continue to realize that human beings are dangerous, just like we realize that bears are dangerous.”

In response to the Exxon-Valdez oil spill, Ross wrote a September 1989 op-ed titled “It’s Time We Quit Crying Over the Oil Spill.” “We see almost every day, the same films of what appears to be the same oil-soaked duck pulled out of the water,” he wrote. “The state claims to have a number of refrigerated vans filled with about 30,000 carcasses of waterfowl killed by oil. No doubt some of these birds were casualties of oil. But had several thousand people combed Prince William Sound for dead waterfowl any prior summer, as they did in the summer of 1988 [sic], there is no doubt that an equal number of dead birds could have been accumulated.”

According to University of Alaska-Anchorage Professor Phil Munger, Ross denounced Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the 1980s as a communist subversive while also frequently appearing at public events with his friend Don Tanner, who was a pro-apartheid White Nationalist.

Ross authored a poem titled “The City of Brotherly Love”, where he complained about a trip that he and his wife took to Philadelphia. “Wished I had my .45 with me/In the City of Brotherly Love?/While returning to the hotel/Through city squalor/Two separate panhandlers/Asked me for a dollar,” is among the poem’s passages. In another Ross poem, “Comments of an Alaskan Attorney in California on his Hotel’s ‘Continental’ Breakfasts,” he wrote, “In this land of fruits of nuts/I’d just like to kick some butts.”

Ross authored a poem titled “The City of Brotherly Love”, where he complained about a trip that he and his wife took to Philadelphia. “Wished I had my .45 with me/In the City of Brotherly Love?/While returning to the hotel/Through city squalor/Two separate panhandlers/Asked me for a dollar,” is among the poem’s passages. In another Ross poem, “Comments of an Alaskan Attorney in California on his Hotel’s ‘Continental’ Breakfasts,” he wrote, “In this land of fruits of nuts/I’d just like to kick some butts.”