Arizona

• Arizona Supreme Court
• Arizona Judicial Nominating Commissions

• 16 members:
  • 5 lawyers nominated by Board of Governors of the Arizona state bar, appointed by Governor, and confirmed by Senate
  • 10 non-lawyers appointed by Governor and confirmed by Senate
  • Chief Justice or designated Associate Justice of Supreme Court serves as Chair

Terms: 4 years (staggered)

• Commission submits a list of at least three nominees from which the Governor must choose one.
• At the end of a Justice’s term, the Justice is subject to a retention election.

Interim Vacancies

• Within sixty days from the occurrence of a vacancy in the office of a justice or judge of any court of record, except superior court or record inferior to the superior court, the commission on appellate court appointments, if the vacancy is in the supreme court or an intermediate appellate court of record, shall submit to the Governor the names of not less than three persons nominated by it to fill such vacancy, no more than sixty percentum of such nominees being members of the same political party.
• A vacancy in the office of a justice or a judge of such courts of record shall be filled by appointment by the Governor without regard to political affiliation from one of the nominees whose names shall be submitted to him as herein above provided.

• Arizona CONST. art. VI §§ 4, 36, & 37