Arizona’s former governor, Doug Ducey, expanded the court to seven justices. All solid conservatives, they upheld a 160-year-old abortion ban that presents a political risk to Republicans.
Arizona is one of roughly 20 states where judges must face the voters to keep their jobs.
Under the system, voters must decide to retain or reject judges two years after their appointments, and every six years after that. Of 1,500 judges who have gone through the process since the mid-1970s, only six have lost — and three of those losses occurred in 2022.
No Supreme Court justice has lost, but Justice Montgomery came close, in 2022, garnering 55 percent of the vote. Republican legislators, who control the statehouse, are now considering a proposal to make it more difficult to remove Supreme Court justices except in extraordinary circumstances.
The two members of the court who face retention elections this year are Justice Bolick and Justice King.
Given the likelihood that Arizona voters will already be weighing a ballot initiative to enshrine the right to an abortion in the Constitution, those judicial races may well attract more attention than usual, said Paul Weich, a lawyer who writes the newsletter Arizona’s Law. “I would anticipate that the abortion access initiative coalition is going to be urging people to not only vote for the initiative but to vote for no on retention for those two justices.”
Damn skippy I plan to.