Court Opinion

ID: 9855195
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:20:51.523201+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:23:43.352054
License: Public Domain

MARTONE, Justice,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I agree with the majority that this judge should be suspended. But I agree with Justice Zlaket that she should not be suspended for the full balance of her term. The majority says it “need not struggle with the problem of deciding just what sanction would have been appropriate had the Council taken no action.” Ante, at 111, 882 P.2d at 422. I am of the view that because a period of suspension much shorter than the entire balance of her term is appropriate, the majority is simply avoiding the dilemma it creates for itself in acknowledging the power of the city council to suspend her at all. See Jett v. City of Tucson, 180 Ariz. 115, 124, 882 P.2d 426, 435 (Martone, J., dissenting) (“Suppose a city council removes the judge, but we believe a lesser sanction is appropriate.”). I believe that today’s decision is driven more by the majority’s need to harmonize its result here with that in Jett v. City of Tucson than independent consideration and judgment.