[7] Following his clerkships, Bales was in private practice at the Phoenix law firm of Meyer, Hendricks, Victor, Osborn & Maledon from 1985 to 1994.

[8][9] He was retained for a six-year term in 2008 with more than 77 percent of Arizona voters casting ballots in favor of his retention in office.

[11] In 2016 Bales asked Arizona Governor Doug Ducey to veto a bill that added two justices to the state supreme court, arguing that the caseload did not justify the additional members.

[13] After retiring from the bench Bales served as executive director of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) at the University of Denver.

[22] In 2018 Bales was named by the American Judges Association as the that year's recipient of the Chief Justice Richard W. Holmes Award of Merit, which recognizes "outstanding contributions to the judiciary.

[24] In Cheatham v. DiCiccio, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld release time for a member of the police union against a challenge by the Goldwater Institute.

[27] Fordham University law professor John Pfaff wrote of the majority's decision, "If I owned a daycare center I'd be closing down and moving to another state.