WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed Aaron C. Peterson of Anchorage to be a federal District Court judge in Alaska.
The vote was 58 to 39, with seven Democrats voting yes.
Peterson is in his mid-40s and was born in Anchorage. He’s an Air Force veteran and has worked at the state Department of Law since 2012. Earlier, he clerked in the Alaska Superior Court, for now-retired Superior Court Judge Michael Spaan.
“Judge Spaan approached his work diligently, with humility and always respecting every litigant that appeared before him,” Peterson said at his Senate confirmation hearing last year. “I took so much away from that clerkship, and I’ve carried those lessons with me every day since.”
Peterson, once he’s sworn in, will be the first judge to go through an advisory committee Sen. Dan Sullivan established to help select candidates for Alaska’s federal court.
He’ll be Alaska’s first new federal judge since U.S. District Court Judge Joshua Kindred resigned amid allegations of impropriety with law clerks and attorneys. Like Peterson, Kindred had the support of both U.S. senators and was nominated by President Trump.
Peterson’s swearing-in will bring the number of judges on Alaska’s U.S. District Court to two. The court still has one vacancy.
