French followed his time as a legislator with nine years as Chief Justice on the Arizona Territorial Supreme Court.
[3] Based upon a recommendation by the California Congressional delegation,[6] French was nominated to become Chief Justice of Arizona by President Ulysses S. Grant on December 13, 1875, and confirmed by the United States Senate three days later.
[8] French's wife died from cancer on December 11, 1879, while escorting the couple's children back east to attend college.
[8] As his first four-year term was set to expire, there was universal support in the Arizona press for French's reappointment.
[11] From the time he took the bench until 1883, all surviving supreme court decisions in the Arizona Register were authored by French.
Examples include Fleury v. Jackson and Tompkins, 1 Arizona 361 (1887) which denied an appeal because the request was submitted after the allotted time for such action had expired and French's affirmation of the lower court's ruling in Territory v. Selden, 1 Arizona 381 (1879) because the appeal did not include a bill of exceptions.
In Cole v. Bean, 1 Arizona 377 (1878), the Chief Justice found that an expert was not needed to testify as to the effects of liquor upon a person.
[14] The court reporter, Buckey O'Neill, came to Churchill's aid as a brawl broke out within the courtroom.
[15] Defendant Patrick McAteer, who was testifying at the time the fight began, drew a large knife and joined the fray.
[16] During the struggle, a shot from a revolver struck the kerosene lamp illuminating the courtroom, extinguishing the room's primary light source.