BREAKING UPDATE: Hobbs' Agency Director Appointment Work-Around Special Action DECLINED By Court of Appeals

UPDATE, 7/15, 9:30am: "Hobbs' Agency Director Appointment Work-Around Special Action DECLINED By Court of Appeals"

Governor Katie Hobbs' agency director standoff with the Arizona State Senate continues today, after the Court of Appeals declined to consider her Special Action Petition and the Superior Court Judge then refused to temporarily stay his decision.

Judge Scott Blaney ruled last month that Hobbs could not avoid the Senate confirmation process by naming "Executive Deputy Directors" instead. Hobbs filed a Special Action Petition to reverse that decision and had asked for a temporary stay during the appeal.

Friday, the Court of Appeals declined to accept review, stating that because Blaney had set an August 14 oral argument on whether to issue an injunction and /ora writ of mandamus, they did not want to intervene in that process.(Order, below)

This morning, Judge Blaney issued a Minute Entry (below) noting that he was denying the stay request as moot because the Special Action was now gone. He reiterated that he hopes the parties can reach something before August 14.

"It remains the Court’s hope that these two coequal branches of Arizona government will negotiate a resolution to this dispute prior to the oral argument.," he wrote.

UPDATE, 6/19, 12:30pm: "Hobbs Files Special Action To Defend Work-Around Agency Director Appointments"

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs yesterday filed a Special Action Petition with the Court of Appeals in an effort to defend her work-around agency director appointments.

Earlier this month, Superior Court Judge Scot Blaney decided that those work-around appointments violated Arizona law, and that the State Senate's new process for grilling nominees did not justify the alternative of hiring deputy directors and calling them "Executive Deputy Directors". He ordered the parties to meet and confer before holding further proceedings in the fall.

Hobbs' Petition argues that the appellate judges should quickly reverse Blaney's decision, partly because it "create(s) a massive cloud of uncertainty around everything that the Executive Deputy Directors in 13 state agencies have done—dating back to their appointments in September 2023 and continuing to the present."

Hobbs also argues that the parties agreed that the Directors' positions were vacant, so the judge cannot determine that they are "de facto directors".

Original article, 6/5: "BREAKING: Superior Court Judge Rules AZ  Gov. Hobbs' Work-Around Agency Director Appointments VIOLATE AZ Law"

This article was reported by AZ Law founder Paul Weich. 

"AZ Law" includes articles, commentaries and updates about opinions from the Arizona Supreme Court, U.S. Supreme Court, as well as trial and appellate courts, etc. AZ Law is founded by Phoenix attorney Paul Weich, and joins Arizona's Politics on the internet. 

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