Few Arizona voters have ever met a judge on the Nov. 5 ballot.
We do not follow their cases or attend their courtrooms.
But like most races and the questions at the end of the ballot, the decision to proceed or remove a judge could have far-reaching implications.
How can you make an informed choice?
How many judges are on my ballot?
There is two supreme court justices — Clint Bolick and Kathryn King — About voting on November 5th. Everyone votes on them and appeals to the court judge.
This year, there will be two appellate courts, each with two judges scheduled to remain in office. division 1 Serving Apache, Coconino, La Paz, Navajo, Maricopa, Mojave, Yavapai, and Yuma counties. division 2 provide the rest.
Voters in Arizona’s urban counties must also vote for superior court judges who handle criminal, civil, juvenile, and family court cases. There is:
What can we learn from a judicial review?
of Arizona Commission on Judicial Performance Review is a bipartisan commission that surveys judges who have had direct contact with attorneys, clients, witnesses, jurors, court staff, and other judges.
They are asked to evaluate judges based on criteria such as their temperament, legal knowledge, and ability to manage a courtroom. Respondents rank, for example, how fairly judges treat people and how deeply their decisions are rooted in the law and facts of the case.
The committee considers these rankings, along with other information, and votes on whether the judge meets the judicial standards listed above.
of Survey results It is also posted on the committee’s website.
This year, all of the judges who participated in the vote met the criteria, but two who would have received low scores chose to retire rather than face voters.
No wonder. In 2022, the commission said one judge in Maricopa County did not meet the standard, and two others in the county met the standard, but just barely.
Voters voted on all three that year.
However, deletions remain rare. Voters did it just three times and it was removed. Total of 6 judges It has been 50 years since the state merit system was created.
What information am I missing?
The system isn’t perfect.
Survey response rates are often very low. And this year, because the committee did not vote on the justices individually, it is impossible to know which decisions were unanimous or divided, as in previous years.
The commission currently links past court decisions involving Supreme Court and Court of Appeal judges, but it is much more difficult to track High Court decisions by judge.
The committee also did not directly link its findings to: Complaints against the judge.
Thousands of complaints have been filed over the past six years. The majority were dismissed for lack of evidence, but the names of the judges involved have not been disclosed.
However, during this time, none of the judges who participated in the vote have been censured or publicly reprimanded.
What about judge politics?
You might say that’s great. But what about the politics of judges?
That’s a common question, given progressive attempts to criticize Supreme Court justices for their ruling that reinstated the state’s near-total ban on abortion in 1864.
Voters often ask whether judges are Republicans or Democrats, especially in lesser-known appeals courts and high courts.
But these seats are bipartisan, and given the amount of political pressure on the judiciary, most justices prefer to keep their personal leanings a closely guarded secret.
What should I do about this?
A separate ballot measure, Proposition 137, will determine the future of judicial retention. If passed, votes to reject the justices could be retroactively invalidated.
But we have to make a choice now. I won’t explain how to vote, but here are my thoughts:
None of those who participated in the ballots have been disciplined, and while performance reviews are not perfect, they have been given the opportunity to speak up if they believe judges are making biased decisions. There is.
Still, most judges achieved satisfaction scores of 90% or higher.
Nor is he willing to punish Supreme Court justices who upheld unpopular abortion laws, even if they were terrible laws.
When lawmakers passed the 15-week ban, they made it clear that if Roe v. Wade was invalidated, the near-total ban from 1864 would remain on the books.
Judges make decisions based on what the law says, and that’s what we should expect from them.
That’s why this year we’re going to fill in the “yes” bubbles to retain all judges.
Contact All Hands joanna.allhands@arizonarepublic.com or X (formerly Twitter) @joannaallhands.
