Maria Elena Cruz

Arizona Court of Appeals - Division One

Justice Maria Elena Cruz currently serves on the Arizona Supreme Court. Prior to her appointment, she served for nearly eight years as a Judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals. On that court she presided over appeals in every area of the law, including complex commercial litigation, criminal, family, juvenile, tax, unemployment, and other administrative law matters.

Her service as an appellate judge was preceded by her time as the Presiding Judge of Superior Court in Yuma County. While she served in that capacity, administering the business of the courts county-wide, Justice Cruz presided over serious criminal cases, Drug Court, and Restitution Court, a victim restitution program she had established in her county and presided over as judge pro tem until her appointment to the Arizona Supreme Court. During her term as a superior court judge, Justice Cruz also presided over juvenile, family, civil and criminal matters.

Justice Cruz earned a Juris Doctorate and her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Arizona. After clerking at the Pima County Attorney’s Office, she began her practice as a prosecutor in Yuma County. Later, Justice Cruz practiced in criminal defense, eventually venturing into solo practice, and served as judge pro tem for the Cocopah Indian Tribe. In 2008 Justice Cruz became the first woman and first Latinx elected Superior Court Judge in Yuma County, and in 2025 she became the first Afro-Latina appointed to the Arizona Supreme Court.

In 2018 Justice Cruz was appointed to serve on the Arizona Supreme Court Task Force on Delivery of Legal Service, where she led the workgroup on Alternative Business Structures and the Legal Paraprofessional certification was born. She was a zealous advocate for the implementation of the program and still promotes it throughout the State.

Justice Cruz continues to work to advance access to justice throughout the state by serving on the Task Force on Public Communications, a hallmark of the Arizona Supreme Court.

For more than a decade, Justice Cruz contributed to the development of the law internationally by serving as a professor of law teaching trial advocacy in various regions within the Republic of Mexico. Today, in addition to her service on the Arizona Supreme Court, she also serves on the high Court’s Commission on Victims in the Court, Advisory Committee on Evidence Retention, and Committee on Judicial Education and Training. She is a mentor to law students, legal paraprofessionals, and judges.