Scott Bales
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William Scott Bales (born July 20, 1956) is the former Chief Justice of the
Arizona Supreme Court 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 ...
. He was appointed to the court in 2005 by Governor
Janet Napolitano Janet Ann Napolitano (; born November 29, 1957) is an American politician, lawyer, and university administrator who served as the 21st governor of Arizona from 2003 to 2009 and third United States secretary of homeland security from 2009 to 20 ...
through Arizona's merit selection system. He was elected by his fellow justices as Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, to replace Rebecca White Berch, effective June 27, 2014. Bales served as Arizona's chief justice until July 31, 2019.


Early life and education

Bales was born in
Elkhart, Indiana Elkhart ( ) is a city in Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. The city is located east of South Bend, Indiana, east of Chicago, Illinois, and north of Indianapolis, Indiana. Elkhart has the larger population of the two principal cities of th ...
and grew up in
White Pigeon, Michigan White Pigeon is a village in St. Joseph County, Michigan, St. Joseph County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,522 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. The village is located within White Pigeon Township, Michigan, White ...
. Following his 1974 graduation from White Pigeon High School, Bales graduated cum laude,
Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...
,
Phi Kappa Phi The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (or simply Phi Kappa Phi or ) is an honor society established in 1897 to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to area of study, and to promote the "unity and democracy of education ...
, and
Omicron Delta Epsilon Omicron Delta Epsilon ( or ODE) is an international honor society in the field of economics, formed from the merger of Omicron Delta Gamma and Omicron Chi Epsilon, in 1963. Its board of trustees includes well-known economists such as Robert Luc ...
with a
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
from
Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...
in 1978. He graduated from
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
with an
Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
in Economics in 1980. Bales earned his
Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...
, magna cum laude, from
Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...
in 1983. While at Harvard Law School, he was a member of the Board of Editors of the
Harvard Law Review The ''Harvard Law Review'' is a law review published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the ''Harvard Law Review''s 2015 impact factor of 4.979 placed the journal first out of 143 ...
. Following law school, Bales was
law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...
for the
Office of the Solicitor General The Office of the Solicitor General of the Philippines ( fil, Tanggapan ng Taga-usig Panlahat), formerly known as the Bureau of Justice, is an independent and autonomous office attached to the Department of Justice. The OSG is headed by Menardo ...
in 1983. He went on to clerk for Joseph T. Sneed III of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District ...
. From 1984 to 1985 he was clerk for associate justice
Sandra Day O'Connor Sandra Day O'Connor (born March 26, 1930) is an American retired attorney and politician who served as the first female associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. She was both the first woman nominated and th ...
of the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
.


Legal career

Following his clerkships, Bales was in private practice at the Phoenix law firm of Meyer, Hendricks, Victor, Osborn & Maledon from 1985 to 1994. He then served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the
District of Arizona District of Arizona was a subordinate district of the Department of New Mexico territory created on August 30, 1862 and transferred to the Department of the Pacific in March 1865. District of Arizona (Dept. of New Mexico) commanders Headquarter ...
from 1995 to 1999, including service as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the
U.S. Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
's Office of Policy Development from 1998 to 1999. Bales then served as Solicitor General for the State of Arizona from 1999 to 2001. He returned to private practice as a partner at
Lewis and Roca Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie is a U.S. law firm with approximately 300 attorneys across ten offices in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico. Its administrative offices are located in Phoenix, where it was founded in 1950 as Lewi ...
from 2001 until his appointment to the Arizona Supreme Court in 2005.


Judicial career and retirement

Bales was appointed to the Arizona Supreme Court on June 14, 2005 by Governor
Janet Napolitano Janet Ann Napolitano (; born November 29, 1957) is an American politician, lawyer, and university administrator who served as the 21st governor of Arizona from 2003 to 2009 and third United States secretary of homeland security from 2009 to 20 ...
through Arizona's merit selection system. He was retained for a six-year term in 2008 with more than 77 percent of Arizona voters casting ballots in favor of his retention in office. Bales was elected by his fellow justices as Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, effective June 26, 2014, replacing Rebecca White Berch. He was once again retained by Arizona voters in 2014, receiving more than 73 percent of the vote. In 2016 Bales asked Arizona Governor
Doug Ducey Douglas Anthony Ducey (, né Roscoe Jr.; born April 9, 1964) is an American businessman and politician serving as the 23rd governor of Arizona since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, Ducey was previously the CEO of Cold Stone Creamery, a c ...
to veto a bill that added two justices to the state supreme court, arguing that the caseload did not justify the additional members. Bales retired from the Arizona Supreme Court on July 31, 2019. After retiring from the bench Bales served as executive director of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) at the
University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...
. On Sept. 5-6, 2019, Bales participated in a conference discussion at Duke Law School, along with several other state supreme court chief justices, on "problems stemming from the disproportionate impact of court fees, fines, and bail processes on poor and minority communities." In June 2020 Bales, along with Justice Demo Himonas of the
Utah Supreme Court The Utah Supreme Court is the supreme court of the state of Utah, United States. It has final authority of interpretation of the Utah Constitution. The Utah Supreme Court is composed of five members: a chief justice, an associate chief justice, ...
, argued in a Bloomberg Law editorial that states should experiment with new ways to give people access to the civil justice system that do not involve lawyers. Bales resigned his position with IAALS on July 31, 2020. Bales was elected to the
American Law Institute The American Law Institute (ALI) is a research and advocacy group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of United States common law and its adaptation to changing social needs. ...
in 2007 and was elected to the ALI Council in 2014. He serves as an Adviser on the Principles of Election Law: Resolution of Election Disputes and was a consultant on the Restatement Third, Employment Law project. Bales is also a member of the Advisory Board for the O'Connor Justice Prize. During the 2020-2021 term Bales is chair of
American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acad ...
Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. In 2018 Bales was named by the American Judges Association as the that year's recipient of the Chief Justice Richard W. Holmes Award of Merit, which recognizes "outstanding contributions to the judiciary." Bales also received the 2018 Ernest C. Friesen Award of Excellence, presented annually by the Justice Management Institute to an individual who has demonstrated vision, leadership, and sustained commitment to the achievement of excellence in the administration of justice.


Notable decisions

In ''Cheatham v. DiCiccio'', the Arizona Supreme Court upheld release time for a member of the police union against a challenge by the
Goldwater Institute The Goldwater Institute is a conservative and libertarian public policy think tank located in Phoenix whose stated mission is "to defend and strengthen the freedom guaranteed to all Americans in the constitutions of the United States and all fift ...
. In the 2016 case ''State v. Holle,'' Bales and Justice
Robert M. Brutinel Robert Maurice Brutinel (born March 18, 1958) is the chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court. He was appointed to the court in 2010 by Governor Jan Brewer, through Arizona's merit selection system Professional career Brutinel is a graduate of ...
dissented from the majority opinion and argued that under the majority's interpretation of the state's child molestation law, parents could be charged for simple acts like changing a diaper. Fordham University law professor John Pfaff wrote of the majority's decision, "If I owned a daycare center I'd be closing down and moving to another state." ''Holle'' was the court's third 3-2 decision during Bales's tenure as chief justice.


Publications


"Justice Sandra Day O'Connor: No Insurmountable Hurdles"
, 58 Stan. L. Rev. 1705 (2010). *
On Teachers and Judges
" 47 Arizona L. Rev. 867 (2005). *"The Ninth Circuit: Should It Stay or Should It Go?," 34 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 379 (2000) * "Turning the Microscope Back on Forensic Scientists", 26 Litigation 51 (Winter 2000).


See also

*
List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 8) Law clerks have assisted the justices of the United States Supreme Court in various capacities since the first one was hired by Justice Horace Gray in 1882. Each justice is permitted to have between three and four law clerks per Court term. Mos ...


References

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Bales, Scott 1956 births Living people 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American judges Arizona Democrats Justices of the Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justices of the Arizona Supreme Court Harvard Law School alumni Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Michigan State University alumni