United States District Court for the District of Alaska

United States District Court for the District of Alaska
United States District Court for the District of Alaska
(D. Alaska)
Location	Anchorage show More locations
Appeals to	Ninth Circuit
Established	January 3, 1959
Judges	3
Chief Judge	Timothy Mark Burgess
Officers of the court
U.S. Attorney	E. Bryan Wilson (acting)
U.S. Marshal	Robert Heun
	www.akd.uscourts.gov

The United States District Court for the District of Alaska (in case citations, D. Alaska) is a federal court in the Ninth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appealed to the Federal Circuit).

The District was established on July 7, 1958, pending Alaska statehood on January 3, 1959.^[1]

The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Alaska represents the United States in civil and criminal litigation in the court. As of February 26, 2021 the Acting United States Attorney is E. Bryan Wilson.

Organization of the court[]

The United States District Court for the District of Alaska is the sole federal judicial district in Alaska.^[2] Court for the District is held at Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Ketchikan, and Nome.

Anchorage Division comprises the following borough/census areas: Aleutians East, Aleutians West, Anchorage, Bethel, Bristol Bay, Dillingham, Kenai Peninsula, Kodiak Island, Lake and Peninsula, Matanuska-Susitna, and Valdez-Cordova.

Fairbanks Division comprises the following borough/census areas: Denali, Fairbanks North Star, North Slope, Southeast Fairbanks, and Yukon-Koyukuk.

Juneau Division comprises the following borough/census areas: Haines, Hoonah-Angoon, Juneau, Petersburg, Sitka, Skagway, and Yakutat.

Ketchikan Division comprises the following borough/census areas: Ketchikan Gateway, Prince of Wales, and Wrangell.

Nome Division comprises the following borough/census areas: Nome, Northwest Arctic, and Kusilvak.

Current judges[]

As of February 18, 2020:

#	Title	Judge	Duty station	Born	Term of service			Appointed by
#	Title	Judge	Duty station	Born	Active	Chief	Senior	Appointed by
10	Chief Judge	Timothy Mark Burgess	Anchorage	1956	2006–present	2015–present	—	G.W. Bush
11	District Judge	Sharon L. Gleason	Anchorage	1957	2012–present	—	—	Obama
12	District Judge	Joshua M. Kindred	Anchorage	1977	2020–present	—	—	Trump
5	Senior Judge	H. Russel Holland	Anchorage	1936	1984–2001	1989–1995	2001–present	Reagan
7	Senior Judge	James K. Singleton	Anchorage	1939	1990–2005	1995–2002	2005–present	G.H.W. Bush
8	Senior Judge	John W. Sedwick	Anchorage	1946	1992–2011	2002–2009	2011–present	G.H.W. Bush
9	Senior Judge	Ralph R. Beistline	Anchorage	1948	2002–2015	2009–2015	2015–present	G.W. Bush

Former judges[]

#	Judge	State	Born–died	Active service	Chief Judge	Senior status	Appointed by	Reason for termination
1	Walter Hartman Hodge	AK	1896–1975	1960–1966	1961–1966	1966–1975	Eisenhower	death
2	Raymond Eugene Plummer	AK	1913–1987	1961–1973	1966–1973	1973–1987	Kennedy	death
3	James von der Heydt	AK	1919–2013	1966–1984	1973–1984	1984–2013	L. Johnson	death
4	James Martin Fitzgerald	AK	1920–2011	1974–1989	1984–1989	1989–2011	Ford	death
6	Andrew Kleinfeld	AK	1945–present	1986–1991	—	—	Reagan	elevation to 9th Cir.

Chief judges[]

Chief judges have administrative responsibilities with respect to their district court. Unlike the Supreme Court, where one justice is specifically nominated to be chief, the office of chief judge rotates among the district court judges. To be chief, a judge must have been in active service on the court for at least one year, be under the age of 65, and have not previously served as chief judge. A vacancy is filled by the judge highest in seniority among the group of qualified judges. The chief judge serves for a term of seven years or until age 70, whichever occurs first. The age restrictions are waived if no members of the court would otherwise be qualified for the position.

When the office was created in 1948, the chief judge was the longest-serving judge who had not elected to retire on what has since 1958 been known as senior status or declined to serve as chief judge. After August 6, 1959, judges could not become or remain chief after turning 70 years old. The current rules have been in operation since October 1, 1982.

Succession of seats[]

Seat 1
Seat established on January 3, 1959 by 72 Stat. 339
Hodge	1960–1966
von der Heydt	1966–1984
Holland	1984–2001
Beistline	2002–2015
Kindred	2020–present

Seat 2
Seat established on May 19, 1961 by 75 Stat. 80
Plummer	1961–1973
Fitzgerald	1974–1989
Singleton, Jr.	1990–2005
Burgess	2006–present

Seat 3
Seat established on July 10, 1984 by 98 Stat. 333
Kleinfeld	1986–1991
Sedwick	1992–2011
Gleason	2012–present

References[]

^ https://www.fjc.gov/history/courts/u.s.-district-court-district-alaska-legislative-history, Legislative history, Federal Judicial Center
^ 28 U.S.C. § 81A

External links[]

[1] ttps://www.fjc.gov/history/courts/u.s.-district-court-district-alaska-legislative-history, Legislative history, Federal Judicial Center

[2] 28 U.S.C. § 81A

[1]

[2]

show v t Active district judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
Alaska	Burgess Gleason Kindred
Arizona	Snow Zipps Logan Tuchi Humetewa Márquez Rayes Soto Lanza Brnovich Liburdi Rash Hinderaker
C. California	Gutierrez Wilson Carter Phillips Anderson Walter Klausner Carney Fischer Wright Wu Gee Staton Kronstadt Fitzgerald Bernal Olguin Birotte Blumenfeld Holcomb Scarsi Aenlle-Rocha 6 seats vacant
E. California	Mueller Mendez Nunley Drozd 2 seats vacant
N. California	Seeborg Koh Davila Chen Rogers Tigar Orrick Donato Freeman Chhabria Gilliam 3 seats vacant
S. California	Sabraw Sammartino Bencivengo Curiel Bashant Robinson 7 seats vacant
Hawaii	Seabright Kobayashi Watson Otake
Idaho	Nye 1 seat vacant
Montana	Morris Christensen Watters
Nevada	Du Navarro Gordon Dorsey Boulware 2 seats vacant
Oregon	Hernandez Aiken Mosman Simon McShane Immergut
E. Washington	Bastian Peterson Rice Mendoza
W. Washington	Martinez Jones 5 seats vacant
Guam	Tydingco-Gatewood
N. Mariana Islands	Manglona

show v t Senior district judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
Alaska	Holland Singleton Sedwick Beistline
Arizona	McNamee Silver Zapata Collins Bolton Teilborg Martone Jorgenson Bury Campbell Wake
C. California	Hatter Marshall Keller Lew Pregerson Snyder Selna Fairbank
E. California	Shubb Burrell Ishii England O'Neill
N. California	Henderson Armstrong Whyte Wilken Chesney Illston Breyer Alsup Hamilton White
S. California	Huff Moskowitz Miller Whelan Lorenz Burns Hayes Houston Benitez Anello Battaglia
Hawaii	Kay Ezra Gillmor Mollway
Idaho	Lodge Winmill
Montana	Lovell Molloy Haddon
Nevada	McKibben Hunt Dawson Hicks Mahan Jones
Oregon	Marsh Jones Haggerty Brown
E. Washington	Quackenbush Nielsen Van Sickle Whaley Shea Suko
W. Washington	Rothstein Coughenour Dimmick Bryan Zilly Lasnik Pechman Robart Settle
Guam
N. Mariana Islands	Munson

show v t United States district and territorial courts
List of United States district and territorial courts

District courts	Alabama (M, N, S) Alaska Arizona Arkansas (E, W) California (C, E, N, S) Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida (M, N, S) Georgia (M, N, S) Hawaii Idaho Illinois (C, N, S) Indiana (N, S) Iowa (N, S) Kansas Kentucky (E, W) Louisiana (E, M, W) Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan (E, W) Minnesota Mississippi (N, S) Missouri (E, W) Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York (E, N, S, W) North Carolina (E, M, W) North Dakota Ohio (N, S) Oklahoma (E, N, W) Oregon Pennsylvania (E, M, W) Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee (E, M, W) Texas (E, N, S, W) Utah Vermont Virginia (E, W) Washington (E, W) West Virginia (N, S) Wisconsin (E, W) Wyoming
Territorial courts	Guam Northern Mariana Islands Virgin Islands
Extinct courts	Former United States district courts District of Orleans District of Potomac Eastern District of Illinois District of the Canal Zone District of China
Note	American Samoa does not have a district court or federal territorial court; federal matters there go to the District of Columbia, Hawaii, or its own Supreme Court.