Judging the judges
How are we supposed to know which ones should stay on the bench? ... Let's check with the attorneys ... Lots of candidate debates coming up.
If you’re not a lawyer or a judge, you might have a hard time sizing up the 16 Pima County Superior Court judges who will be on the ballot in November.
Unlike candidates for offices like county supervisor, judges compete in nonpartisan races and don’t tend to campaign very much. It’s also harder to get a handle on their record in office, which is made up of rulings in courtrooms, rather than the political choices that county supervisors make at public meetings streamed on YouTube.
It’d be great if we could ask a bunch of lawyers who they think should stay on the bench. After all, they’re the ones who spend more time with judges than pretty much anybody else.
Lucky for us, we can actually do that. Sort of.
The Arizona Commission on Judicial Performance Review sent surveys to hundreds of attorneys (along with judges and jurors) asking them to rate the judges who are up for a vote.
The JPR reports are some of the best tools available, and they just came out.
The good news is all the Pima County judges on the November ballot meet the JPR’s standards.
The bad news is these reports aren’t easy to read. Each one is a long series of charts that show survey results.
To their credit, the JPR commissioners are trying to give voters at least some kind of measurement, as well as encouraging them to vote for every office, not just the big-time offices like president or governor at the top of the ballot.
We wanted to see if we could make the reports more digestible for you.1 So we looked at which judges got the highest (and lowest) marks from attorneys.
That’s one of the things we do here at the Agenda. We nerd out on dense reports to save you some time.
Which judges do attorneys think have the best legal minds?
They gave the highest marks to Greg Sakall, with 78% of attorneys saying he was “superior” in the category of “legal reasoning ability,” followed by Kyle A. Bryson at 72%. They’re both civil court judges. Sakall has been on the bench since 2017 and Bryson since 2010.
They gave the lowest marks to Danielle J.K. Constant, a family court judge who’s served since 2022, with 24% saying she was “superior.” Second from the bottom was Brenden J. Griffin, a criminal court judge who has served since 2013, at 38%.
How about integrity?
That would be Bryson, with 78% of attorneys saying he was “superior” in “basic fairness and impartiality.” Next up were Sakall and Casey McGinley, a civil court judge who’s served since 2018, at 75%.
Constant came in with the lowest marks, with 28% of attorneys saying she was “superior.” Griffin was next, with 43%.
Compassion is important, right? Judges wield a lot of power, after all.
Attorneys gave the highest marks to Bryson, with 73% saying he was “superior” in “understanding and compassion.” Close behind were Sakall and McGinley at 72% and Michael J. Butler at 71%. Butler is a juvenile court judge who’s served since 2013.
Griffin got the lowest marks, with 35%, followed by Constant at 41% and Joan Wagener at 44%. Wagener is a juvenile court judge who’s been on the bench since 2014.
Those are just a few of the broad categories. There are dozens of other issues in the surveys, like communication, punctuality, and equal treatment regardless of race or gender, that are worth a look.
If you want to browse the reports yourself, you can find them on the JPR website.
Time to debate: The Tucson Sentinel’s Jim Nintzel has the slate of upcoming candidate debates and forums, starting off with Pima County Supervisor Matt Heinz and Republican challenger John Backer this evening. On Thursday, the state House and Senate candidates in Legislative District 17 will meet in a forum hosted by Clean Elections. Next week, voters will hear from candidates for the Catalina Foothills Unified School District governing board and candidates for county supervisor in District 5.
Complaints of abuse: Migrant advocates raised the alarm again last week about how migrant children are treated in Border Patrol custody, Arizona Public Media’s Danyelle Khmara reports. Legal advocates in Arizona say they’ve filed more than 300 complaints, ranging from children being subjected to hunger to being pushed or kicked by agents.
Lots to do: Local governments have a lot on their plates this week, from the Pima County supervisors’ meeting today to the Marana Town Council dealing with noise violations and special event permits, Sentinel columnist Blake Morlock writes. The Oro Valley Town Council also is going to decide whether to allow small livestock on certain residential properties.
Asking the public: Tucson officials are asking the public for feedback on the Sixth Avenue underpass, KGUN’s Alex Dowd reports. The plan is to rename the underpass after Donovan Durband, a key player in the revitalization of Tucson’s downtown who died last year, and add artwork, including ceramic tiles made from Tucson postcards that Durband collected.
A walk on the wild side: A writer and former Tucsonan returned home with different eyes, KJZZ’s Sam Dingman reports. Richard Grant, a journalist who traveled the world with an eye for places that attract people in transition, spoke with Dingman about his new book “A Race to the Bottom of Crazy,” where he tells tales of the outlaws and anti-heroes who made Arizona home.
Over capacity: The Pima Animal Care Center now has a record number of dogs in their care, after 88 dogs were found at a condemned property in Tucson last weekend, the Arizona Daily Star reports. Staff are now caring for 628 dogs and asking for help with adoptions and fosters. PACC has more information on their website.
69: The statewide total of Arizona Supreme Court justices, Court of Appeals judges, and superior court judges who will be on the ballot in November.
We should point out two key aspects of the surveys. The commission sent out far more surveys for some judges, like 1,235 for Richard Gordon, than for some other judges. Kyle A. Bryson had the fewest, with 289. There also was a big difference in how many surveys were returned for each judge. Brenden Griffin had the most, with 327, while Danielle J.K. Constant had the fewest, with 46.