James Duke Cameron (March 25, 1925 – May 23, 2003) was a justice of the

Supreme Court of Arizona The Arizona Supreme Court is the state supreme court of the U.S. state of Arizona. Sitting in the Supreme Court building in downtown Phoenix, the court consists of a chief justice, a vice chief justice, and five associate justices. Each justice i ...

from January 4, 1971 to February 28, 1992. He served as chief justice from January 1975 to December 1975. Born in Richmond, California, Cameron's family moved to Arizona in 1925. He served in the United States Army during World War II. Cameron later attended the University of California, Berkeley, graduating in 1950. Returning to Arizona he received his law degree from

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

in 1954 and later earned an LL.M, from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

in 1982. He entered private practice in Yuma after law school before becoming a Judge for the Superior Court in

Yuma County, Arizona Yuma County is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, its population was 203,881. The county seat is Yuma. Yuma County includes the Yuma, Arizona Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county bor ...

where he served from 1960 to 1961. In 1965 he became a Judge on Court of Appeals, where he served until he was appointed to Supreme Court in 1971 by Governor

Paul Fannin Paul Jones Fannin (January 29, 1907January 13, 2002) was an American businessman and politician. A Republican, he served as a U.S. Senator from Arizona from 1965 to 1977. He previously served as the 11th governor of Arizona from 1959 to 1965. Ear ...

. On the bench Cameron "gained a nationwide reputation as a judicial administrator." Cameron is the only Arizona chief justice to have served as chairman of the

Conference of Chief Justices The Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) was created in 1949 after the need for an organization composed of the states' and territories' top jurists was amply discussed at the American Bar Association and other juridical organizations. The first mee ...

, which he did from 1978–1979. In 1986, President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

appointed Cameron to the Board of Directors of the State Justice Institute, where he served until 1994. Cameron donated his legal papers to the Arizona Historical Society in 1992.

Publications

* James Duke Cameron, ''Federal Review, Finalty of State Court Decisions, and a Proposal for a National Court of Appeals – A State Judge's Solution to a Continuing Problem'', 1981 BYU L. Rev. 545 (1981).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cameron, James Duke Justices of the Arizona Supreme Court 1925 births 2003 deaths James E. Rogers College of Law alumni Chief Justices of the Arizona Supreme Court 20th-century American judges