Junior judges drafted to decide retirement issue

PHOENIX (AP) — Some of the state’s most junior judges will be deciding a pocketbook issue involving their more senior colleagues.

Arizona Chief Justice Scott Bales has named five Superior Court and Court of Appeals judges who took office since 2011 to consider a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of contribution and benefits changes that the Legislature made to the judicial retirement system earlier that year.

All five Supreme Court justices excused themselves from considering an appeal of a lower court ruling. The justices all joined the judicial retirement system before the changes took effect.

Most current Arizona judges have a stake in the class-action case, but the five judges who will consider the appeal before the Supreme Court hadn’t become judges and joined the retirement plan before the changes took effect.