Julia Lipez is congratulated by Rep. Elizabeth Caruso, R-Caratunk, on Wednesday, after a public hearing at the State House. The committee unanimously endorsed Lipez’s nomination to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

AUGUSTA — The Maine Senate voted Thursday to confirm Julia Lipez, a state Superior Court justice and former assistant U.S. Attorney for Maine, to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

Lipez, of Cape Elizabeth, was confirmed in a 34-1 vote with Sen. Joseph Martin, R-Oxford, opposed. The Senate also voted 30-5 to confirm former U.S. Attorney Darcie McElwee to serve on the state Superior Court.

“I am delighted the Maine Senate has confirmed Justice Julia Lipez to serve on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, and Darcie McElwee to serve on the Maine Superior Court,” Gov. Janet Mills, who nominated both women for the positions last month, said in a written statement.

“A talented writer and appellate attorney, Justice Lipez has an exemplary record and a strong commitment to the rule of law,” Mills said. “She is an excellent addition to the Law Court, which is now at its full complement.

“A past U.S. Attorney for Maine and longtime Assistant U.S. Attorney, Darcie McElwee is highly qualified to serve as Justice of the Maine Superior Court. She and Justice Lipez, both natives of Maine, will serve Maine people from the bench with fairness, integrity and respect.”

Lipez was endorsed by the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee in a unanimous vote Wednesday. She has served on the Maine Superior Court since 2022 and was previously an assistant U.S. Attorney for Maine.

She was nominated last year by President Joe Biden to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, but was one of four appellate nominees that senators agreed not to confirm as part of a deal between Democrats and Republicans so they could quickly confirm other nominees before the change in administrations.

Mills announced her selection of Lipez last month to fill a year-old vacancy on the state’s highest court, replacing Associate Justice Joseph Jabar.

Lipez was asked twice in the Judiciary Committee about questions raised by Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, during her nomination process to the federal bench, in which he accused her of giving a light sentence in 2023 to a Woodstock man convicted of unlawful sexual contact with two young girls.

As she told Kennedy, Lipez told Maine lawmakers she is obligated to follow sentencing laws set by the Legislature. Lipez said she ordered what prosecutors had requested and that she takes victims’ concerns seriously.

“I have personally sat many times with victims and survivors of crime while they have shared with me in harrowing detail what they experienced,” Lipez said.

Lipez is a Stanford Law School graduate who began her legal career with a clerkship at the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in Virginia. She worked for three years at a large law firm in New York before returning to Maine in 2011 to work for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, where she prosecuted cases involving human trafficking, fraud, narcotics and child exploitation.

McElwee, of Scarborough, was most recently the District of Maine’s chief federal law enforcement officer. She was terminated in February by order of the Trump administration, which is not uncommon during presidential turnover.

Mills is expected to swear in Lipez and McElwee in next week.