Peter J. Maassen
From Ballotpedia
Peter Maassen
Prior offices
Alaska Supreme Court
Education
Peter Maassen was a judge of the Alaska Supreme Court. He assumed office on August 9, 2012. He left office on January 13, 2025.
Maassen was elected by his peers to succeed Daniel Winfree as chief justice of the court. His term as chief began on February 7, 2023.[1] Maassen retired on January 13, 2025.[2]
Maassen was first appointed to the Alaska Supreme Court on August 9, 2012, by Gov. Sean Parnell (R). He succeeded Justice Morgan Christen, who was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.[3] To read more about judicial selection in Alaska, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[4] Maassen received a confidence score of Indeterminate.[5] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Maassen earned his B.A. from Hope College in 1977 and his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1980. Prior to joining the court, he worked in private practice and in the Office of General Counsel at the U. S. Department of Commerce.[6]
Maassen was the 22nd justice to join the Alaska Supreme Court. He was appointed in August 2012 and retained by voters in 2016.
Elections
2016
- See also: Alaska Supreme Court elections, 2016
Justice Maassen was retained by voters in 2016.[7]
Peter J. Maassen was retained in the Alaska Supreme Court, Maassen's seat election with 57.47% of the vote.
| Alaska Supreme Court, Maassen's seat, 2016 | |
|---|---|
| Name | Yes votes |
 Peter J. Maassen | 57.47% |
| Source: Alaska 2016 General Election, Official Results |
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[8]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[9]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Peter
Maassen
Alaska
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Indeterminate - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Appointed by a Republican governor
- Donated less than $2,000 to Democratic candidates
Partisan Profile
Details:
Maassen was appointed by Gov. Sean Parnell (R). He donated $1,050 to Democratic candidates and organizations.
State supreme court judicial selection in Alaska
- See also: Judicial selection in Alaska
The five justices on the Alaska Supreme Court are selected through the assisted appointed method. Each justice is appointed from a list of two or more nominees compiled by the Alaska Judicial Council.[10]
The initial term of a new justice is at least three years, after which the justice stands for retention in an uncontested yes-no election. Subsequent terms last ten years.[11] For more information on these elections, visit the Alaska judicial elections page.
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a justice must be:
- a U.S. citizen;
- a state resident for at least five years;
- licensed to practice law in the state;
- active in law practice for at least eight years; and
- under the age of 70.[12][13]
Chief justice
The chief justice is chosen by a vote of the other supreme court justices and serves a three-year term.[14]
Vacancies
The process of filling interim judicial vacancies is identical to that of filling ones that would occur at the end of a justice's term. The governor appoints a justice from a pool of names provided by the nominating commission. After occupying the seat for at least three years, the appointee runs in an uncontested yes-no retention election and, if retained, will serve a subsequent term of ten years.[15][16]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, "Alaska Supreme Court chooses next chief justice," December 1, 2022
- ↑ Kodiak Daily Mirror, "Carney to serve as Alaska Supreme Court chief justice," November 28, 2024
- ↑ Office of the Alaska Governor, Press Release: "Governor Names Maassen to Supreme Court," August 9, 2012
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ Alaska Supreme Court, "Peter J. Massen," accessed June 11, 2021
- ↑ State of Alaska Division of Elections, "November 8, 2016 General Election Candidate List," accessed June 11, 2021
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ Alaska Judicial Council, "Selection Law - Constitutional and Statutory Provisions Concerning Judicial Selection: Alaska Constitution Article IV, Section 5. Nomination and Appointment," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ Alaska Judicial Council, "Constitutional and Statutory Provisions Concerning Judicial Retention/Evaluation: AS 15.35.030. Approval or rejection of supreme court justice," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ Alaska Judicial Council, "AS 22.05.070. Qualifications of justices," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ Alaska Judicial Council, "AS 22.25.010. Retirement of Justices and Judges," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ Alaska Court System, "Court System Information," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ Alaska Judicial Council, "Constitutional and Statutory Provisions Concerning Judicial Retention/Evaluation: AS 15.35.030. Approval or rejection of supreme court justice," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ Alaska Judicial Council, "Selection Law - Constitutional and Statutory Provisions Concerning Judicial Selection: Alaska Constitution Article IV, Section 5. Nomination and Appointment," accessed March 23, 2023
