A look at the Supreme Court justices who decided Arizona’s abortion ban
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — The decision to uphold the 160-year-old ban on abortion came down to four of the seven Arizona Supreme Court justices.
Two of the seven voted against it, and one abstained. The five men and two women were all appointed by Republican governors.
Two of the four justices who voted in favor of the ban are up for retention in November. That means voters will decide whether or not to keep Clint Bolick and Kathryn King on the court.
The justices behind the majority opinion are Justices John Lopez, James Beene, Bolick and King. Lopez wrote the majority opinion.
He wrote, “A policy matter of this gravity must ultimately be resolved by our citizens through the legislature or the initiative process… we merely follow our limited constitutional role and duty to interpret the law as written.”
Chief Justice Robert Brutinel and Vice Chief Justice Ann Timmer voted against enforcing it.
Timmer wrote the dissenting opinion, explaining, “The majority mistakenly returns us to the territorial-era abortion statute last operative in 1973. I would leave it to the people and the legislature to determine Arizona’s course in the wake of Roe’s demise. With great respect for my colleagues, I dissent.”
While they agree that people should ultimately decide, how they get there is vastly different.
Paul Bender, a constitutional law expert at ASU, weighed in.
“You have a situation where all the existing laws are too old or were passed under a misapprehension of what the Supreme Court of the United States was going to do so the AZ Supreme Court has to decide what to do in that case,” Bender said.
“They said look we’re about to have an election and the election will say whether the people want to have a constitutional right to an abortion or not,” he explained.
That’s because advocates appear to have enough signatures to put the question on the ballot.
All of these State Supreme Court Justices were appointed by Republic Governors. Doug Ducey appointed the five in the majority, and Jan Brewer appointed the two who dissented.
So what happens between now and November? Bender said the ban won’t take effect. It’ll be caught up in legal challenges.
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