PHOENIX â Arizona Supreme Court Justice Andrew Gould is leaving that bench after just over four years.
Gould did not cite a reason for leaving in a news release Friday from the court. He is 57; judges and justices can serve until age 70.
Gouldâs announcement paves the way for Gov. Doug Ducey to appoint a replacement.
The governor must choose from nominees sent to him by the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments, which is dominated by people put there by Ducey.
Appointment was part of expansion
Gould was one of two justices, both Republicans like the governor, selected by Ducey in 2016 after the GOP-controlled Arizona Legislature agreed to expand the bench from five to seven.
Gould had been a Yuma County Superior Court judge and an Arizona Court of Appeals judge.
His appointment to the high court, along with that of John Lopez IV, who had been the stateâs solicitor general, gave Ducey his second and third justices on the bench.
Ducey said at the time his decision to sign legislation expanding the court, and giving him the two picks, was not political.
âWe have not packed the court,â he said then, although the five justices sitting at the time said the expansion was not merited. âWe have right-sized the court,â Ducey said.
High-profile rulings
Gould was the author of a number of attention-getting rulings.
In 2018, he wrote a precedent-setting decision that Arizona companies have no duty to protect family members from exposure to toxic materials that their employees bring home on their work clothes.
The majority of justices rejected arguments by survivors of Ernest Quiroz that Reynolds Metal Co. should be held legally responsible for his mesothelioma, a form of cancer frequently associated with asbestos exposure, and his eventual death.
His survivors argued he got the disease due to the fact that his father, with whom he lived for a time, was exposed on numerous occasions to asbestos-containing products and machinery, which contaminated his fatherâs clothing, tools, car, body and general surroundings.
Gould, writing the majority ruling, said the company owed no duty to protect anyone other than its own employees.
More recently, he authored a ruling that anti-discrimination laws do not trump the rights of business owners to refuse to provide certain services to gays.
Gould said the sincerely held religious beliefs of the owners of a calligraphy studio protect them from having to produce custom wedding invitations for same-sex couples.
Before being seated on the stateâs high court, he also wrote some high-profile decisions.
In 2017, for example, while on the state Court of Appeals, he wrote that the mother of one of the firefighters killed in the 2013 Yarnell Hill blaze had no right to sue the state for her sonâs death.
Gould, writing for the unanimous panel, said the allegations by Marcia McKee show âa series of negligent and grossly negligent actsâ that, if proven, culminated in the death of her son, Grant, and 18 other members of the Granite Mountain Hotshot crew.
But he said that in order to sue she had to show âwillful misconductâ by those involved, something Gould said she had not produced.
In a separate appellate court case, Gould found himself in the minority on the issue of whether accused sex offenders are entitled to bail.
The majority, in overturning a no-bail law, concluded that simply being charged with a crime, even if there is evidence of the personâs guilt, is legally insufficient to keep someone locked up.
But Gould rejected the argument that being held without bail is a constitutional violation, saying the purpose of the law âis to protect victims and the community,â meaning it is âregulatory, not punitive.â
Before becoming a judge, Gould was chief civil deputy in the Yuma County Attorneyâs Office. He also was a civil litigator in private practice from 1990 through 1994.
