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John Lopez IV
2017 - Present
2027
8
John Lopez IV is a judge of the Arizona Supreme Court. He assumed office in 2017. His current term ends on January 4, 2027.
Lopez IV ran for re-election for judge of the Arizona Supreme Court. He won in the retention election on November 3, 2020.
Lopez first became a member of the court by appointment. Gov. Doug Ducey (R) announced Lopez's appointment on November 28, 2016. This appointment filled one of two vacancies created when a 2016 law expanded the state supreme court from five justices to seven.[1] To read more about judicial selection in Arizona, click here.
Lopez is the first Hispanic justice appointed to the court.[2]
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[3] Lopez received a confidence score of Strong Republican.[4] Click here to read more about this study.
Lopez was previously Arizona's state solicitor general.
Biography
Lopez received his bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1992 and his J.D., cum laude, from Arizona State University College of Law in 1998.[5]
Lopez began his legal career clerking for Justice Charles Jones of the Arizona Supreme Court and as an attorney at Bryan Cave Law Firm. He then worked as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona from 2002 to 2014. During his tenure, he was an executive assistant attorney, chief assistant attorney, chief of the financial crimes and public integrity section, and deputy appellate chief. Lopez served as Arizona's solicitor general from 2015 to 2017, when he was seated on the supreme court.[5]
Lopez's other experience includes chairing the Pima County Judicial Nominating Committee, the Pinal County Judicial Nominating Committee, and other committees. In 2005, Lopez received the U.S. Attorney General’s Special Commendation Award for his work with the Regime Crimes Liaison Office in Iraq. As of June 2021, Lopez was a board of directors member of the Federalist Society's Phoenix Lawyers Chapter.[5]
Elections
2020
Arizona Supreme Court
John Lopez IV was retained to the Arizona Supreme Court on November 3, 2020 with 72.7% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
72.7
|
1,806,530 | ||
No |
27.3
|
679,989 | |||
Total Votes |
2,486,519 | ||||
|
|
2016
Gov. Doug Ducey (R) announced Lopez's appointment on November 28, 2016. Lopez assumed office in January 2017.[1][5]
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
John Lopez IV did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
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.[6]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[7]
- 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.
John
Lopez IV
Arizona
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Strong Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through governor controlled judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Held political office as a Republican
- Donated over $2000 to Republican candidates
Partisan Profile
Details:
Lopez served as the solicitor general for Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R). He also donated $2,070.00 to Mitt Romney’s (R) presidential campaign. Lopez was appointed to the court by Gov. Doug Ducey (R) while Arizona was under a Republican trifecta. He was formerly registered to vote as a Republican.
Other Indicators:
Lopez was on the board of directors of the Phoenix chapter of the Federalist Society. Seven out of twelve members on the Arizona Judicial Nominating Commission at the time of his appointment were registered Republicans. There were no Democrats on that committee.
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.[8]
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.[9] For more information on these retention elections, visit the Arizona judicial elections page.
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a justice:[10]
| “ |
|
” |
Chief justice
The court's chief justice is selected by peer vote. He or she serves in that capacity for five years.[12]
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.[13]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
|
Officeholder Arizona Supreme Court |
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Office of the Governor: Doug Ducey, "Two New Appointments To The Supreme Court Of Arizona," November 28, 2016
- ↑ The Arizona Republic, "Gov. Doug Ducey appoints two Arizona Supreme Court justices," November 28, 2016
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Arizona Judicial Branch, "Justice John R. Lopez IV," accessed June 16, 2021
- ↑ 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
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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
