SITTING ON TWO BENCHES: Arizona's 2nd Supreme Court Is Based In... Honduras? Arizona Semi-Retired Justice, Judges Are Only Senior Arbiters In "Precarious" Semi-Autonomous City

A semi-retired Arizona Supreme Court Justice and two other retired Arizona judges comprise the highest level of arbitrators in a privately-owned, semi-autonomous, Ayn Rand-inspired city on a Honduran island. The New York Times Magazine reports this week that "Próspera" also is in a battle for survival with the current Honduran government.

Retired Justice John Pelander is one of the three "Senior Arbiters" for the Próspera Arbitration Center and heads the "Appellate Division". PAC is essentially the judicial branch for the ZEDE ("Zone for Employment and Economic Development") "backed by the Silicon Valley billionaires Peter Thiel, Sam Altman and Marc Andreessen". Earlier this month, Arizona's Law reported that Pelander had been given a one-year contract by the Arizona Supreme Court to handle cases on a part-time, as needed basis. 

The Administrative Order (below) details that he receive a fixed part-time salary of approximately $24,000. He participated, for example, in the two expedited appeals involving Arizona's abortion rights ballot measure. (He was in the majorities keeping the measure on the ballot, and permitting the Legislature to include the term "unborn human being" to describe a fetus in the "impartial analysis".)

Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ann Timmer tells Arizona's Law that Pelander's Honduran quasi-judgeship does not give her "cause for concern." Arizona's Code of Judicial Conduct would not permit a full-time judge or justice to moonlight like that, but it specifically exempts either a "retired judge available for assignment" or a part-time judge from those restrictions.

The long-form NY Times Magazine (worth the read) contained this attention-grabbing nugget: "An arbitration center staffed by three retired Arizona judges handles dispute resolution. (In order to enter the jurisdiction, I was told I needed to sign an “agreement of coexistence” binding myself to 4,202 pages of rules, violations of which would be subject to the jurisdictional authority of the arbitration center.)"

A quick search revealed that the other two Arizonans making up Próspera's "Supreme Court" are retired Court of Appeals Judge John Gemmill and retired Superior Court Judge Kenneth Mangum. (Mangum is also a Board Member.) The Arbitration Center lists several other attorneys as "Arbiters" and "Arbitral Officers", with only the Arizonans at the highest of the three levels. 

The article and website also set out other Arizona ties to Próspera - the Founder/CEO is listed as "Arizona entrepreneur Erick Brimen", and the Co-Chair of the Arbitration Center is former Goldwater Institute General Counsel Nick Dranias.

This article was reported by AZ Law founder Paul Weich. 

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