John W. Sedwick
Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1992 and confirmed by voice vote, John W. Sedwick is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska. He earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1972. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1946 · age 80
- Appointed by
- George H.W. Bush, 1992
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Dartmouth College 1968 · Harvard Law School 1972
- Succeeded
- Andrew Jay Kleinfeld
- Succeeded by
- Sharon Louise Gleason
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | District of Alaska succeeded Andrew Jay Kleinfeld | G.H.W. Bush (R) | Voice vote |
Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.
Confirmation vote
Voice vote
The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.
Education
| Dartmouth College | B.A. | 1968 |
| Harvard Law School | J.D. | 1972 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Sedwick was assigned 3,097 district-court cases (1983–2022). Median time from filing to termination: 253 days across 3,097 closed cases.
Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.
On appeal
Of 132 of Sedwick’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 108 were affirmed, 19 reversed or vacated, and 5 affirmed in part and reversed in part. This is a historical count of appellate outcomes for cases we could match, not a judgment of the judge, and not a complete record. How we count.
In our data, Sedwick authored 46 published opinions for the court (1993–2011). Most cited: Rowe v. Burton (43 citations).
A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.
Recent & notable rulings
| Year | Case | Citation | Cited |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Rowe v. Burton | 884 F. Supp. 1372 | 43 |
| 1999 | Malabed v. North Slope Borough | 42 F. Supp. 2d 927 | 14 |
| 1999 | Crosby v. United States | 48 F. Supp. 2d 924 | 12 |
| 1993 | Muñoz v. Albuquerque A.R.T. Co. | 829 F. Supp. 309 | 8 |
| 2004 | Sankey v. ABCO Leasing, Inc. (In Re Sankey) | 307 B.R. 674 | 7 |
| 2011 | Organized Village of Kake v. United States Department of Agriculture | 776 F. Supp. 2d 960 | 6 |
| 2005 | Certain Underwriters at Lloyds v. Inlet Fisheries, Inc. | 389 F. Supp. 2d 1145 | 6 |
| 1994 | Alaska Trowel Trades Pension Fund v. Lopshire | 855 F. Supp. 1077 | 6 |
| 1999 | Ace v. Aetna Life Insurance | 40 F. Supp. 2d 1125 | 5 |
| 1994 | United States v. Pleier | 849 F. Supp. 1321 | 5 |
| 1993 | Flood v. United States | 845 F. Supp. 1367 | 5 |
| 2001 | Jiminez v. Eddy | 153 F. Supp. 2d 1105 | 4 |
| 2001 | United States v. CNA Financial Corp. | 168 F. Supp. 2d 1109 | 3 |
| 1994 | Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp. v. Trust Insurance Plan | 884 F. Supp. 1360 | 3 |
| 2009 | Northstar Trekking LLC v. United States | 637 F. Supp. 2d 676 | 2 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 46 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.
Questions & answers
- Who appointed John W. Sedwick?
- President George H.W. Bush appointed John W. Sedwick to the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska in 1992.
- Was John W. Sedwick appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- John W. Sedwick was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was John W. Sedwick's confirmation vote?
- John W. Sedwick was confirmed by voice vote on October 8, 1992. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is John W. Sedwick on?
- John W. Sedwick is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: United States District Court for the District of Alaska (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
- CourtListener bulk data (Free Law Project): authored opinions & citation counts
How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources
See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.
33 years on the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).