The supreme candidates

New justice incoming … School books and state logos … And the freedom of disbarment.

Gov. Katie Hobbs is getting her first appointment to the state Supreme Court after Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Brutinel’s announcement on Tuesday that he is quitting the gig at the end of next month.

Lawyers and judges are already lining up, hoping for a chance at the most prestigious legal post in the state — and we’re already hearing names from the shortlist of potential future justices.

The appointment may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many Democrats, as Hobbs isn’t guaranteed the opportunity to appoint any other justices during her first term as governor. Arizona Supreme Court justices serve until they turn 70, unless they choose to retire earlier or the voters choose to retire them via a retention election, which they face every six years. The next justice to become a septuagenarian, Clint Bolick, won’t hit that age until after Hobbs finishes her first term.

However, if voters reject Bolick and Justice Kathryn King in their retention elections this November, Hobbs will get to make two more appointments next year.

That could have a profound impact on the court.

We asked our art intern, ChatGPT, to imagine M.C. Escher’s depiction of judicial turnover against a desert backdrop. And they delivered.

Nearly a generation has passed since former Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano was around to appoint justices to the bench. Currently, every sitting Arizona Supreme Court justice was appointed by a Republican governor.

The court is mostly stacked with Gov. Doug Ducey’s appointees. He hired five of the seven justices — a feat made possible by his 2016 expansion of the court from five to seven members.

But the governor doesn’t have the unilateral ability to appoint anybody she wants.

The Commission on Appellate Court Appointments¹ vets applicants for the job and must provide Hobbs with a list of at least three qualified names to choose from.² But Hobbs also won’t have to fight with Senate Republicans to get her justice(s) confirmed — the commission narrows the list of applicants and Hobbs makes the final decision.

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So who are the Democrats that may be in the running for the gig?

Well, there are two obvious front-runners, per the political chattering class.

Andy Gaona, a partner at Coppersmith Brockelman, wants the gig, we hear, and Hobbs’ longtime lawyer and ally Bo Dul would also be an obvious choice for the position, sources noted.

Gaona is the brother of Will Gaona, Hobbs’ deputy chief of staff, and was a protégé of Roopali Desai, another longtime Hobbs ally who was appointed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2022.³ Goana is considered among Arizona’s top Democratic elections lawyers.

But it’s hard to beat Dul’s election experience and ties to the governor. She was the state elections director during Hobbs’ stint as secretary of state, and has been Hobbs’ top lawyer since she took the Governor’s Office.

Both are versed in election law, which is sure to be a hot issue for the court and a priority for the governor, and both are young enough to potentially serve on the court for several decades before hitting 70.

If gender is a consideration for the governor, it’s worth noting that no Democratic governor has ever appointed a woman to the state Supreme Court. Arizona has only had five female Supreme Court justices in its history, including the two on the court now.

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While Dul and Gaona are considered top-tier candidates for the gig, there are plenty of tier-two candidates who may be more qualified for the job but don’t have the connections needed to win the job, considering Hobbs often doesn’t look far from her inner circle for appointments, as politicos noted.

Those names come from the ranks of lower court judges, county attorneys, public defenders and political lawyers. They’re mostly names the general public doesn’t know, though a few are high-profile enough to ring a bell.

Pima County Attorney Laura Conover’s name came up as a potential appointment, as well as former Pima County Public Defender Joel Feinman,⁴ with sources noting that either would provide the court with a more reform-minded perspective on crime.

Attorney General Kris Mayes and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes also were mentioned as possibilities, if only as a way for Hobbs to get rid of these frenemies by promoting them.

Solicitor General Josh Bendor would be a strong pick, politicos argued, as would Rhonda Barnes, the longtime and widely respected lawyer for legislative Democrats.

Also, Hobbs-appointed Clean Elections Commissioner and former Arizona elections director Amy Chan⁵ and appeals court judge Maria Elena Cruz would be on that top-tier candidate list “if this process was actually based on merit,” as one lawyer put it.

When the U.S. Supreme Court declared last year that cities can, indeed, criminalize homelessness by enforcing bans on “public camping,” cities across the western United States breathed a sigh of relief. 

Previously, a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling had barred cities under the court’s jurisdiction from enforcing anti-homeless ordinances, and local officials argued their hands were tied when it comes to cracking down on the growing homeless problem. 

Now, even one of Arizona’s most progressive cities is considering implementing harsher anti-camping rules. 

Our sister newsletter, the Tucson Agenda, breaks down the plan to evict thousands from the maze of washes around Tucson, how it fell apart at the last minute and how it could be revived in the near future. 

More Catholic books, less taxes: Two mothers represented by the Goldwater Institute are suing the Department of Education for requiring parents to justify school voucher purchases by identifying a relevant curriculum, which the education department started doing at the request of Attorney General Kris Mayes, the Arizona Mirror’s Caitlin Sievers reports. One of the mothers was denied reimbursement for a book called “Catholic Encyclopedia for Children.” Goldwater, a conservative think tank, is also warning Gilbert not to increase taxes, which the town is considering to pay for police, fire and parks infrastructure, per KJZZ’s Camryn Sanchez. The think tank cites Prop. 126 which bans municipalities from creating or raising taxes on "intangible" services, which they argue applies to Gilbert's proposed bed tax increase on lodging accommodations.

Fodder for the far-right: An Arizona resident without citizenship says he has no idea how he became registered to vote after renewing his driver’s license, and an elections worker said he could have accidentally checked “yes” on the U.S. citizenship question, 12News’ Sean Rice reports. The Arizona Secretary of State's Office said most of the nearly 100,000 voters who were identified last week as not providing proof of citizenship when registering to vote, due to a coding error, are older Republicans, but the non-citizen worries he could have been one of them.

Kratom controversy: Shops across Arizona are selling kratom with higher levels of the ingredient that gives the plant its opioid-like qualities, 7-OH, than is legally allowed, per the Arizona Mirror’s Jerod MacDonald-Evoy. Former Gov. Doug Ducey signed the Arizona Kratom Consumer Protection Act into law in 2019, which says kratom products can’t have a 7-OH level higher than 2%. The Global Kratom Coalition is advocating for safer use of the product and wants Mayes to investigate.

Our newsletter has just the right amount of opioid-like qualities.

Switching sides: Kamala Harris’ campaign announced it added 90 new members to its Arizona Republicans for Harris Advisory committee, including former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley, KJZZ’s Wayne Schutsky writes. Romley said the Jan. 6 insurrection and Donald Trump’s disparagement of military personnel pushed him over the edge. Meanwhile, shots were fired into Harris’ Tempe campaign office on Monday, but no one was injured, per Axios. The office’s front windows were previously shot with a BB or pellet gun on Sept. 16.

Copycat: The Arizona School Boards Association is suing its former executive director for using copyrighted material to gain clients for his own competitor company, the Republic’s Ray Stern reports. Devin Del Palacio resigned last year amid claims he lied on his resume about having a college degree, and the association says the policy manual his new company uses is a “brazen verbatim copying of at least a substantial portion" of its own handbook.

America has a very special birthday approaching next year, and it’s never too early to start planning.

July 2, 2026, will mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office wants submissions for a logo “to represent our state’s vibrant spirit, stunning landscapes, and rich heritage.” The office also wants some inspiration from our 5 C’s: Copper, Citrus, Cattle, Climate, Cotton.

The submissions will be whittled down to a top 10, which will go to an online public vote for the logo that will be the “official Arizona America250 logo for events, merchandising, and branding.”

You can submit your logo here.

The Secretary of State’s Office says “Use of AI-generated art is highly discouraged,” but we couldn’t let our art intern miss out on the fun.

Former Joe Arpaio attorney Mark Goldman is working on his stand-up comedy club routine after being disbarred last year, Stephen Lemons reports in the Phoenix New Times.

Goldman was one of the more colorful characters in Arpaio’s orbit, rocking “silk ties, a diamond earring, a pirate-like jet-black beard and long black hair pulled back into a ponytail” in the courtroom, Lemons notes.

And he seems to like his new life.

"When you're dependent on being a lawyer, they really have you by the nuts,” Goldman told Lemons. “So, I have freedom now. I just don't care. And I'm happy about that.”

1. The judicial vetting commission is still stacked mostly with Ducey appointees.

2. And all three (or more) names can’t be from the same party, so there will be at least one token Republican (or independent) on the list sent to Hobbs.

3. Fun fact: Desai swore Hobbs into office.

4. Last we heard, Feinman was headed to Canada.

5. Last we checked, Chan was still a registered Republican.