Late this afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge Dominic Lanza dismissed an effort by two groups circulating petitions to force the state of Arizona to open up its online signature platform to allow the initiatives to gather signatures in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
A similar effort in state court is still outstanding.
Finding that the language of Arizona’s Constitution – drafted more than 100 years ago – requires that the initiative petition must be a “sheet… signed in the presence of” the circulator must be respected.
“Enter the coronavirus,” writes Lanza. It prompted plaintiffs to challenge the statutes written pursuant to the Constitution while not challenging the language of the Constitution itself. At the hearing earlier this week, Plaintiffs argued that opening up Arizona’s E-Qual signature platform would substantially comply with the constitutional language.
Judge Lanza was not having it.
