Clint Bolick
2016 - Present
2031
9
Clint Bolick is a judge of the Arizona Supreme Court. He assumed office on January 5, 2016. His current term ends on January 6, 2031.
Bolick ran for re-election for judge of the Arizona Supreme Court. He won in the retention election on November 5, 2024.
Biography
Clint Bolick received a B.A., magna cum laude, in political science from Drew University in 1979 and a J.D. from the University of California at Davis in 1982.[1]
Bolick began his legal career as a staff attorney at the Mountain States Legal Foundation. He then worked as a special assistant with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and as a staff attorney for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice during the Reagan Administration. Bolick then served in leadership positions at the Landmark Center for Civil Rights, Institute for Justice (which he co-founded), Alliance for School Choice, and Goldwater Institute before being appointed to the state supreme court.[1]
Bolick's other experience includes serving as a commissioner on the Industrial Commission of Arizona and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' Arizona State Advisory Committee. He was a board members of the Arizona Charter Schools Association from 2006 to 2014. Bolick also authored several books, including Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution, which he co-authored with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) in 2013.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Arizona Supreme Court elections, 2024
Arizona Supreme Court
Clint Bolick was retained to the Arizona Supreme Court on November 5, 2024 with 58.2% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
58.2
|
1,534,635 | ||
No |
41.8
|
1,102,423 | |||
Total Votes |
2,637,058 | ||||
|
|
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Bolick in this election.
2018
- See also: Arizona Supreme Court elections, 2018
Arizona Supreme Court
Clint Bolick was retained to the Arizona Supreme Court on November 6, 2018 with 70.0% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
70.0
|
1,187,184 | ||
No |
30.0
|
507,800 | |||
Total Votes |
1,694,984 | ||||
|
|
2016
Arizona Supreme Court
When former chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court Rebecca White Berch retired in September 2015, Clint Bolick was among the seven candidates recommended to replace her by the Arizona Commission on Appellate Court Appointments.[2][3] Bolick was appointed to the court on January 6, 2016, by Governor Doug Ducey.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Clint Bolick did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Ballotpedia currently provides campaign finance data for all federal- and state-level candidates from 2020 and later. We are continuously working to expand our data to include prior elections. That information will be published here as we acquire it. If you would like to help us provide this data, please consider donating to Ballotpedia.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[4]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[5]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Clint
Bolick
Arizona
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through governor controlled judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Donated over $2,000 to Republican candidates
- Held political office as a Republican
- Appointed by a Republican governor
Partisan Profile
Details:
Bolick served in the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice during Ronald Reagan’s (R) presidency. He donated $5,910 to Republican candidates. He was appointed to the court by Gov. Doug Ducey (R). At the time of his appointment, Arizona was a Republican trifecta.
State supreme court judicial selection in Arizona
- See also: Judicial selection in Arizona
The seven justices on the Arizona Supreme Court are each appointed by the governor from a list of names compiled by the Arizona Commission on Appellate Court Appointments. The commission is composed of 16 members who serve staggered four-year terms. The membership includes 10 non-attorneys, five attorneys, and the chief justice of the supreme court, who chairs the commission.[6]
The initial term of a new justice is at least two years, after which the justice stands for retention in an uncontested yes-no election. Subsequent terms last six years.[7] For more information on these retention elections, visit the Arizona judicial elections page.
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a justice:[8]
| “ |
|
” |
Chief justice
The court's chief justice is selected by peer vote. He or she serves in that capacity for five years.[10]
Vacancies
If a midterm vacancy occurs on the court, the seat is filled as it normally would be if the vacancy occurred at the end of a justice's term. Potential justices submit applications to the Arizona Commission on Appellate Court Appointments, and once the commission has chosen a slate of nominees, the governor picks one from that list. After occupying the seat for two years, the newly appointed justice stands for retention in the next general election. The justice then serves a full six-year term if he or she is retained by voters.[11]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Arizona Judicial Branch, "Justice Clint Bolick," accessed June 17, 2021
- ↑ The Arizona Republic, "Judge appointed to curb 'very activist' Arizona Supreme Court retires," October 16, 2015
- ↑ Yuma Sun, "Gov. Ducey to pick from list of possible court nominees," November 20, 2015
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ Arizona Judicial Branch, "Article 6, Section 36: Commission on appellate court appointments and terms, appointments and vacancies on commission," accessed March 24, 2023
- ↑ Arizona Judicial Branch, "Article 6, Section 37: Judicial vacancies and appointments; initial terms; residence; age," accessed March 24, 2023
- ↑ Arizona Judicial Branch, "AZ Supreme Court," accessed March 24, 2023
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Arizona Judicial Branch, "Meet The Justices," accessed March 24, 2023
- ↑ Brennan Center for Justice, "Judicial Selection: An Interactive Map," accessed March 23, 2023
Federal courts:
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Arizona • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Arizona
State courts:
Arizona Supreme Court • Arizona Court of Appeals • Arizona Superior Court • Arizona Justice Courts • Arizona Municipal Courts
State resources:
Courts in Arizona • Arizona judicial elections • Judicial selection in Arizona
| ||||||||||
 |
State of Arizona Phoenix (capital) |
|---|---|
| Elections |
What's on my ballot? | Elections in 2025 | How to vote | How to run for office | Ballot measures |
| Government |
Who represents me? | U.S. President | U.S. Congress | Federal courts | State executives | State legislature | State and local courts | Counties | Cities | School districts | Public policy |
