This new, updated, and expanded Public Service Orientation Guidebook is developed to give public officers an overview of Arizona’s laws concerning ethical standards. Although the Attorney General’s Office offers this Guidebook and a training program to assist you, the Office also is responsible to investigate and prosecute violations of public service laws. Accordingly, it is important that public officers understand that they are each responsible for complying with the law.

Attorney General Opinions are issued when requested by the legislature (or either house of the legislature), any public officer of the State, or a county attorney, on a question of law relating to their office. Our office does not issue opinions for private citizens, nor do we offer legal advice to private citizens.

The following opinions were issued from 1999 to the present time. The first two digits of each opinion indicate the year it was issued (I99 indicates it was issued in 1999), and the next three digits sequentially number the order in which the opinions were issued. For example, I99-003 would be the third opinion issued in 1999. The number in parentheses (R98-025) references the request for an opinion file number. Opinions of the Attorney General are advisory, and do not have the same effect as decisions of a court of law.

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office is the largest public law firm in the state, and the practice areas include: Protecting Arizona consumers against fraud, providing Arizona taxpayers with quality representation of State agencies, ensuring that Arizona aggressively pursues and prosecutes drug dealers and predators, and defending the human rights of all Arizonans.

This report is a result of the "2002 Equitable Treatment of Minority Youth" report produced by the Arizona Supreme Court Commission on Minorities in the Judiciary. One of the recommendations issued in that report was to create an annual report card to assess progress on the reduction of over-representation of minority youth in the juvenile justice system. The decision has been modified to produce a report card every other year. The first report serves as a baseline for the second, third and fourth report cards. The intent is to illustrate the current situation, provide a basis for future comparison, highlight areas of special concern and compare these results with the prior report card.

This report represent the efforts of the Commission since its reactivation under a new mandate in May of 1994. The goal of this work group is to develop policies and programs that will facilitate the growth of minority applicants seeking appointments as judges, commissioners, judges pro tempore, special masters, clerkships, and internships.

Shortly after selecting Judge Roxanne Song Ong as Commission Chair and reconstituting its membership, Chief Justice McGregor directed the Commission to develop a strategic plan with projects that seek to enhance fairness and equity in the judiciary and present a report at the December 2006 meeting of the Arizona Judicial Council.

The conference looked beyond the juvenile justice system proper to examine the roots and potential solutions to the over representation of minority youth in Arizona’s juvenile justice system. Through this important undertaking and the dedication of the Commission on Minorities, Arizona demonstrated once again its important role as a leader in shaping the future of the juvenile justice system.