An independent judiciary is essential to our democracy. It needs to be free from interference, threats and retaliation.
For the better part of the last 50 years, Arizona’s merit system on the selection of judges — which includes a public vote on the retention of judges every few years — has served us well, though not perfectly.
Now, this system is under assault by those who are using retention elections to target judges for removal over rulings they do not like.
Arizona judges are under threat
In 2022, three Superior Court judges were ousted from office — two of them despite recommendations for retention by the Commission on Judicial Performance Review (JPR), an independent body of judges, attorneys and citizen members that evaluates their work and conduct…