Hobbs’ Appointee Judicial Commission Resigns, Accused Of Questionable Conduct

appointee
Catherine Sigmon

An appointee of Governor Katie Hobbs has withdrawn her name just days before her confirmation hearing to the Maricopa County Commission on Trial Court Appointments was set to take place. Catherine Sigmon was named to the post by Hobbs roughly four months ago, but resigned her position as part of abandoning her nomination, after “disturbing revelations came to light,” according to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Sigmon is the finance manager and co-founder of the controversial anti-school choice group, Save Our Schools in Arizona.

The Commission, established by the Arizona Constitution, is tasked with nominating the most highly qualified judge applicants to the Governor for appointment to the Maricopa County Superior Court. The Constitution specifies “merit” should be the Commission’s primary consideration when choosing these applicants.

According to Senate Judiciary Chairman Sen. Anthony Kern, “while members of the Senate Judiciary Committee looked into Ms. Sigmon’s background prior to her confirmation hearing scheduled for Thursday, disturbing revelations came to light. Those include her co-founding of “Civic Engagement Beyond Voting,” an organization that routinely attacks conservative Arizona judges through its “Gavel Watch Report” and advocates for their removal, despite recommendations of retention from the Commission on Judicial Performance Review.”

“After reviewing the Constitutional requirements for the Commission on Trial Court Appointments, two big factors jump out at me,” said Kern in a press release. “First, the Commission is to be nonpartisan. Second, the Commission’s primary task is to recommend qualified judge candidates to the Governor for appointment. Based on initial vetting of Ms. Sigmon, it’s quite clear she’s an extremist who wants to portray the role of ‘non-partisan.’ Hobbs would have realized this, had she done her own vetting prior to appointing Ms. Sigmon to the Commission. However, as Hobbs has shown, vetting is not at the top of her ‘to-do’ list. As such, we’re thankful that Ms. Sigmon realized she likely would not be a proper fit for the job and resigned. We’re looking forward to Hobbs providing us with a more reasonable appointment.”

Kern noted that Sigmon’s “organization has campaigned against judges based on written briefs for religious liberty and free speech cases, as well as their memberships with professional associations, strictly because their views don’t fall in line with the political ideology favored by her organization.”

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