Years of Service: 2026 - Present
On June 10, 2026, the United States Senate confirmed Anthony J. Powell as a United States District Judge for the District of Kansas. Judge Powell sits in Wichita.
Before his appointment to the federal bench, Judge Powell served as Kansas Solicitor General from 2023 to 2026, overseeing all the state’s appellate litigation and many of the office’s high-profile cases.
Prior to his work as Solicitor General, Judge Powell served nearly 20 years as a Kansas judge. He served on the Kansas Court of Appeals from 2013 to 2022, authoring 672 opinions and participating in more than 2,000 cases. Judge Powell served as Sedgwick County District Court Judge from 2003 to 2013, working in nearly every department of the court, including service as the presiding judge in the family law department.
Judge Powell has held numerous leadership positions. He served on the Executive Board of the Kansas District Judges’ Association and co-chaired its Legislative Committee. He was also a member of the Judicial Council’s End of Life Issues Committee and the Kansas Supreme Court’s Committee on High Conflict Divorce.
Before his judicial service, Judge Powell served eight years in the Kansas House of Representatives, where he was Majority Whip and chaired several committees, including Federal and State Affairs, Ethics and Elections, and the Joint Committee on State-Tribal Relations. He also served as vice chair of the Taxation Committee.
After being admitted to the Kansas bar in 1991, Judge Powell joined Martin and Churchill, Chartered, where he practiced primarily in labor and employment law. Earlier in his career, he served as Legislative Director to Congressman William Broomfield and interned for Senator Bob Dole.
Judge Powell earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the George Washington University in 1985 and a Juris Doctor, with honors, from Washburn University School of Law in 1991. While in law school, he served as an associate editor of the Washburn Law Journal and was a member of the Moot Court Board.
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