John R. Lopez IV (born 1968) is an American lawyer who has served as a justice of the
Arizona Supreme Court since 2016.
Early life and education
Lopez received his bachelor's degree in political science and Middle Eastern studies from the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
in 1992. After receiving his bachelor's degree, Lopez did graduate work in political science and Middle Eastern studies at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
and graduated from the
Arizona State University
Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...
Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law in 1998. In law school, Lopez was an articles editor for the Arizona State Law Journal.
Career
After law school Lopez clerked for Justice
Charles Jones of the Arizona Supreme Court. He then worked at the law firm
Bryan Cave as a commercial litigator.
Lopez worked for the
United States Attorney's Office
United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...
for more than 12 years, serving as an
Executive Assistant United States Attorney, Chief Assistant, the Chief of Public Crimes and Public Integrity Section as well as Deputy Appellate Chief.
He also served for six months as a legal advisor in
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
consulting in the prosecution of
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...
. He served as the
solicitor general for Arizona Attorney General
Mark Brnovich immediately before his appointment to the Supreme Court.
Arizona Supreme Court
On November 28, 2016, Governor
Doug Ducey announced the appointment of Lopez to the
Arizona Supreme Court to a newly created seat.
He was sworn into office on December 19, 2016.
In April 2024, Lopez authored a 4-2 decision finding that the state's "territorial-era law outlawing
abortion
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...
except to save the life of the mother is enforceable."
See also
*
List of Hispanic and Latino American jurists
References
External links
Court Application
1968 births
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American judges
Arizona Republicans
Assistant United States Attorneys
Hispanic and Latino American judges
Justices of the Arizona Supreme Court
Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law alumni
Solicitors General of Arizona
University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts alumni
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