Attorney General Kris Mayes is accusing top Arizona Republican legislators of trying to do an end-run around the lawmaking process by asking the state Supreme Court to make a change in how appellate judges are elected.
In the filing, Mayes pointed out that House Speaker Ben Toma pushed a measure through the Legislature to let all Arizonans decide whether to retain Court of Appeals judges.
Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed Toma’s bill earlier this year and urged the Legislature to revisit the issue in the next session.
Toma and Senate President Warren Petersen have now joined the Goldwater Institute in asking the state’s high court to deem the current system unconstitutional.
They say that is because judges can hear cases from across the state, despite being retained only by voters in the counties they are from.
The system being challenged goes back to 1964 when the Legislature set up the Court of Appeals into two divisions.
Division One consists of Maricopa, Yuma, Mohave, Coconino, Yavapai, La Paz, Navajo and Apache counties. Division two has Pima, Pinal, Cochise, Santa Cruz, Greenlee, Graham and Gila counties.
Appellate judges are now chosen by the governor who has to fill vacancies according to formulas on how many come from each area. And the chosen judges stand for "reelection'' every four years on a retain-or-reject basis; if turned out of office, the process of gubernatorial appointment starts over.
