Judicial selection in Arizona
From Judgepedia
Judicial selection in Arizona is a patchwork quilt of different systems.
A list of nominees for membership on the Arizona Supreme Court or the Arizona Court of Appeals is chosen by a commission, the Arizona Commission on Appellate Court Appointments. Once this group has chosen a slate of nominees for a vacancy that has occurred, the governor picks one from the slate. The state senate then confirms or denies that appointeee.
Two other commissions, the Maricopa County Commission on Trial Court Appointments and the Pima County Commission on Trial Court Appointments, go through a similar process to pick judges for the trial courts in those states. Meanwhile, all the other counties in Arizona elect their trial judges.
Make-up of the judicial commissions
Each commission has 16 members: 10 public members and 5 attorneys, plus the Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court or a designated Supreme Court justice, who serves as a voting chairperson.
To be a member of any of the three judicial selection commissions:
- Members must have lived in Arizona for at least five years;
- Lawyer members must have practiced law in Arizona for five years.
- No more than three lawyer members and no more than five nonlawyer members may belong to the same political party.
- Members serve staggered four-year terms.
- Lawyers who are chosen from the commission are selected from a slate of candidates prepared by the State Bar of Arizona.
History of Arizona's selection process
Arizona voters enacted the state's current system of choosing judges in 1974, when they voted to pass Proposition 108, which was subsequently amended in 1992.
