Applications are due Monday for the two new slots on the Arizona Supreme Court.
The Republican-controlled state Legislature voted earlier this year to expand the court to seven members. Democrat lawmakers said the move is designed to let Gov. Doug Ducey, who gets the final pick, to pack the court. And all of the court's justices said the expansion is unnecessary.
But it's now law and would-be justices must turn in a 16-page application to a screening panel. One question they have to answer is if they've ever used drugs that are illegal under state or federal law while not under a doctor's care. Arizona law allows people who have a doctor's recommendation to use marijuana, though it remains illegal under federal law.
Chief Justice Scott Bales said he could not say whether an affirmative answer would knock someone out of consideration. "Interesting to speculate if someone said, 'Well, I'm an authorized medical marijuana user,' what the committee would do with that," he said.
There are other probing questions, like whether an applicant has been sued for fraud or suspended from school for plagiarism.
"The other things, I guess, go to a person's character and integrity," Bales said. "And it would be up to the commission to weigh, depending on the answer, what weight to give it."
The screening panel has to provide Ducey with at least three names, who cannot all belong the same party.