Trump names Kyle Reardon to the Alaska judgeship vacant since 2024

President Trump on Tuesday named Kyle Reardon to the Alaska federal district judgeship that has sat empty since July 8, 2024, when Judge Joshua M. Kindred resigned. Kindred stepped down after being accused of creating a hostile work environment, sexually assaulting a former clerk and lying to investigators about his behavior.

No formal nomination has reached the Senate. A nomination is transmitted as a separate step, and until it arrives there is no referral to the Judiciary Committee, no questionnaire, no hearing date, and nothing for either Alaska senator to vote on. The gap is routine: Trump announced Aaron Christian Peterson's nomination in November and transmitted it six days later.

The federal judiciary's vacancy table, updated Wednesday, lists the District of Alaska seat as vacant and leaves its nominee and nomination-date columns blank. The Senate Judiciary Committee's judicial nominations page shows nominees for other districts and none for Alaska. Of 26 district and circuit vacancies nationally, four have a nominee pending.

The court has three authorized district judgeships, and Alaska has not had all three filled in years. Chief Judge Timothy Burgess retired at the end of 2021, leaving a seat open until the Senate confirmed Peterson this February. For more than a year, Chief Judge Sharon L. Gleason was the state's only active district judge. Filling the vacancies was slowed by disagreements between Alaska's two senators over how to do it.

Reardon has served as a U.S. magistrate judge in Anchorage since October 2021. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Alaska and in the Eastern District of California, and began his legal career as a judge advocate in the U.S. Army JAG Corps. He is a graduate of Centre College and the University of Virginia School of Law.

In a 2025 Alaska Bar Association poll, 21 percent of 407 respondents rated Reardon qualified or better for a federal judgeship. Three-quarters said they did not know enough about him to answer.

Reardon wrote in February 2025 that with "confidence in the judiciary at historic lows," a district judge should have a demonstrated record of service and leadership, be respected in the community and bring seriousness of purpose to the position. Given the district's vacancies, he added, whoever was nominated should already be familiar with the federal courts so they could serve effectively from the moment of confirmation.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski welcomed the pick Wednesday, saying she was pleased with the choice and crediting Reardon's knowledge of the state and its court system. Sen. Dan Sullivan's office has not issued a public statement.