Friday, September 12, 2008

AZ Court of Appeals judges


Division I

Dan Barker UP FOR RETENTION ELECTION
Conservative.
Appointed by Governor Hull in 2001.
Former attorney in private practice and Superior Court judge.

Michael Brown UP FOR RETENTION ELECTION
Moderate. Old Arizona Democrat style.
Appointed by Governor Napolitano in 2007.

Margaret Downie
Liberal.
Appointed in 2008 by Governor Napolitano.
Experienced trial judge.

John Gemmill UP FOR RETENTION ELECTION
Moderate to conservative - due to his libertarian persuasion.
Appointed by Governor Hull in 2001.
On the board of directors for Moon Valley Bible Church and Christian Family Care Agency.
Chief Judge of the division.

Philip Hall UP FOR RETENTION ELECTION
Conservative.
Appointed by Governor Hull in 2001.
Former prosecutor and Superior Court judge.

Pat Irvine UP FOR RETENTION ELECTION
Moderate Democrat.
Appointed by Governor Jane Hull in 2002.
Generally well-liked.

Diane Johnsen
Very liberal.
Appointed by Napolitano in 2006.
Board member of the left wing Center for Law and the Public Interest for years, board member of left wing Children's Action Alliance.
Has virtually no trial experience or criminal law experience, former law partner with liberal Supreme Court Justices Hurwitz and Bales at left-leaning Osborn Maledon.
Currently being considered for a Supreme Court appointment.

Donn Kessler
Moderate Democrat
Extensive trial experience.

Patricia Norris
Very liberal.
Appointed in 2003 by Governor Napolitano.

Patricia Orozco
Very liberal.
Appointed in 2004 by Governor Napolitano.
Former staff attorney with left-leaning Legal Aid.

Maurice Portley
Moderate Democrat.
Appointed in 2003 by Governor Napolitano.
Experienced trial judge and former JAG attorney.

Peter Swann
Liberal to moderate.
Appointed in 2008 by Governor Napolitano.
Very experienced trial judge.

Ann Scott Timmer
Very liberal.
Appointed in 2000 by Governor Jane Hull.
Assisted in impeachment of Governor Evan Mecham, former President of left-leaning Arizona Women Lawyers Association, served on board of left-leaning Community Legal Services.

Jon Thompson UP FOR RETENTION ELECTION
Conservative.
Appointed by Governor Symington in 1995.
Former prosecutor and Superior Court judge.

Sheldon Weisberg
Moderate to conservative.
Appointed in 1992 by Governor Fife Symington.

Lawrence Winthrop UP FOR RETENTION ELECTION

Liberal Republican who almost changed parties and became a Democrat.
Appointed in 2002 by Governor Jane Hull.


Division 2 (southern half of Arizona)

NOT CLEAR IF ANY ARE UP FOR RETENTION ELECTION

William Brammer
Moderate.
Appointed in 1997

Peter Eckerstrom
Extremely liberal
Appointed by Napolitano in 2003.
Entire background is criminal defense.

Philip Espinosa
Conservative.
Appointed in 1992 by Governor Fife Symington.

Virginia Kelly
Brand-new judge appointed by Brewer in 2009, don't have any information on her.

Garye Vasquez
Extremely liberal.
Appointed by Napolitano in 2005.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pretty good for those named from Div. 1. They're pretty much all very reasonable and thoughtful judges.

Judge Gemmill is no longer Chief Judge of Div. 1--it's Judge Timmer. (Term was up last summer.)

Anonymous said...

i really appreicate this info. i think maybe we should let some good attorney's add notes under each judge. just more views on each judge. i see some that were right on by my own views of them in their courts. thanks!

Anonymous said...

Where are the 3 up for retention vote? Johnsen, Orozco and Timmer? I understand all 3 were appointed by Napolitano and are liberal. Is this correct?

Anonymous said...

Why don't you list information about Johnsen, Orozco and Timmer. They are the only judges up for retention in the Court of Appeals, Division ONe

Anonymous said...

Even putting politics aside, Timmer is an embarassment.

Anonymous said...

I also agree, can we get a confirmation that Johnsen, Orozco and Timmer are liberal? No offense but it's difficult to trust an anonymous comment.

AZ Judges Review said...

Not really sure how to provide proof that the three Court of Appeals justices up for retention are liberal. The sources we received the information from are conservative lawyers who know their opinions/decisions well, but don't dare dare reveal who they are due to the arguably unconstitutional AZ Bar rule preventing attorneys from criticizing judges. WE can vouch for their accuracy, these attorneys are very impressive members of the community, that's unfortunately all we can say. Hopefully some day the bogus rule prohibiting the free speech of attorneys will be repealed. But it will be a difficult fight, since the Bar is controlled by the left, and they want to silence information about the judges in order to prevent the public from being informed and able to vote them out of office.

Deb Schwartz said...

what about Weisberg? cant find anything on him!

Anonymous said...

This page has some info on an opinion authored by Orozco: http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/256232

I'd like to see more as the case isn't black/white for me.

Anonymous said...

I personally have had a case in front of Patricia Orozco. She could not even manage to keep the most basic facts of the case straight. Her decision was riddled with factual errors that devastated the case. She refused to correct these errors on reconsideration, ignoring our substantial evidence to prove our case. She as well as the other two judges, Donn Kessler, and Maurice Portley, failed to adhere to the Black Letter Law that states that they will review the case in the light most favorable to the party against whom summary judgmnet was granted instead choosing to review in the light most favorable to the party who won summary judgment. They also failed to adhere to the law that states that conflicts in the evidence are to be resolved by a jury. They decided that they would be both judge and jury in this case. If you are interested in reading more about this case tune into my blog at www.arizonalawblog.blogspot.com.

Anonymous said...

You missed one: Lawrence F. Winthrop is up for retention.