He was a Deputy Assistant Attorney General of United States Department of Justice Criminal Division from 1989 to 1993.

He was Special Assistant to the Director of the Michigan Department of Corrections from 1993 to 1995.

He was a judge on Berrien County Trial Court from 1995 to 1996.

He was a judge on Berrien County Circuit Court from 1996 to 2007.

On March 19, 2007, Maloney was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, to a seat vacated by Judge Richard Alan Enslen.