Federal Judge in Alaska Resigns

A judge's gavel in an undated file photograph. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A U.S. district judge in Alaska, Joshua Kindred, notified the U.S. court system of his resignation earlier this week, according to data provided by the U.S. Courts website.

With the judge’s vacancy, it means that President Biden has the chance to nominate a jurist to the U.S. District Court of Alaska.

The position of U.S. District Court judge for Alaska appears on a list of judicial vacancies. The role, which Judge Kindred relinquished on July 3, will be available starting on July 8, according to the court’s website.

Judge Kindred did not provide a public comment on why he departed.

The Epoch Times contacted the U.S. District Court of Alaska for comment on Friday.

The court website shows that Judge Kindred is the only federal jurist to have resigned in the past year or so.

The court’s website shows that there are 27 vacancies across the United States. Other than Judge Kindred, all the other judges have a retired, elevated, or senior status.

The judge was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2019 to serve as a jurist for the District of Alaska. He was confirmed 54–41 in the Senate in February 2020.

He was born in North Carolina in 1977 and moved to Alaska when his father, an Air Force service member, was transferred to the state, according to a profile from the Federal Lawyer publication in 2021. He graduated from the University of Alaska Anchorage and then attended Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Oregon.

After that, he worked for the Oregon Supreme Court and worked as an assistant district attorney in Alaska before he was nominated as a federal judge by President Trump.

Regarding his nomination process, he recalled being asked by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) about being considered for the federal judge position. “The next thing I knew, they wanted to do an interview. They asked questions about judicial philosophy and my thoughts on statutory interpretation,” he said in the Federal Lawyer publication. “I braced for a media onslaught,” he said, “but it never really came.”

One other Trump appointee, Michael Juneau, left active judicial service, doing so in 2022 due to a disability, according to the Federal Judicial Center. He previously sat in the Western District of Louisiana.

Nominating Process

President Joe Biden has had more than 200 federal judges appointed, after the Senate confirmed Angela Martinez as a district court judge in Arizona in late May.

“Reaching 200 judges is a major milestone,” Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-N.Y.) said just before the 66–28 vote. “Simply put, our 200 judges comprise the most diverse slate of judicial nominations under any president in American history.”

It’s unclear whether President Biden can eclipse his predecessor’s 234 judges before the year ends.

At this stage in his term, President Trump had two Supreme Court justices and 51 appellate court judges confirmed to lifetime appointments. President Biden has tapped one Supreme Court justice and 42 appellate court judges. The current president also has more confirmations of the district judges who handle civil and criminal cases. Those nominations tend to be less hard-fought.

President Biden has pushed for more female and minority judges on the federal bench. On that front, 127 of the 200 judges confirmed to the bench are women. Fifty-eight are black and 36 are Hispanic, according to Mr. Schumer’s office. Thirty-five judges are Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders, more than any other administration, according to the White House.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.