Courts & Law

Lawsuit to challenge the initiative to bankrupt the City of Tucson

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Qualified Tucson electors Yolanda Parker, John Springer, Jr., and Chris Anderson have filed a challenge to the sufficiency of the initiative petition filed by the Committee for Sustainable Retirement, the local front group for ballot initiative activist Paul Jacob and the
Liberty Initiative Fund, with additional financial support from the National Taxpayers Union. Petitioners are represented by the law firm Coppersmith, Schermer & Brockelman, PLC.

A copy of the pleadings are
Here, excluding attached exhibits.

The complaint for injunctive and mandamus relief pursuant to A.R.S. §§19-122(C) challenges the petition signature sheets submitted by by the Committee for Sustainable Retirement and counted by the statutory defendants, including the City Clerk for the City of Tucson.

The complaint alleges that the Defendants illegally accepted petition signature sheets and counted the signatures thereon that:

(1) were circulated by persons who are not qualified to register as electors in the state of Arizona;

(2) were circulated by persons who have not registered as out-of-state circulators with the Arizona Secretary of State prior to circulating petition sheets as required by A.R.S. §19-122(C);

(3) petition signature sheets were improperly notarized and contained circulator affidavits that pre-dated the dates the electors signed the petitions;

(4) petition signatures lacked information required by statute, or were rendered void because the circulator filled in or supplemented information on the petition.

Vast right-wing conspiracy plots a ’30 front war’ against America

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

"This is — the great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president." – Hillary Clinton, Matt Lauer interview on The Today Show, January 27, 1998

Hillary Clinton was right. There really was (and is) a vast right-wing conspiracy of think tanks, non-profits, right-wing media outlets and pundits funded by a few dozen conservative billionaires first suggested in a memo dated August 23, 1971 by Lewis Powell, then a corporate lawyer and member of the boards of 11 corporations, who went on to become a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. The Powell Memo (or the Powell Manifesto): Text and Analysis.

And of course, there is Roger Ailes, a media consultant to Richard Nixon's 1968 campaign that pursued the Southern strategy
of appealing to racism against African-Americans and white grievance to
create a racially polarized electorate.The 1970 plot by Ailes and other
Nixon aides for "A Plan For Putting the GOP on TV News" was the
beginning of FAUX News. Roger Ailes' Secret Nixon-Era Blueprint for Fox News – Gawker.

David Corn at Mother Jones has a lengthy exposé on the latest from the "vast right-wing conspiracy." Inside Groundswell: Read the Memos of the New Right-Wing Strategy Group Planning a "30 Front War":

Believing they are losing the messaging war with progressives, a group
of prominent conservatives in Washington—including the wife of Supreme
Court Justice Clarence Thomas and journalists from Breitbart News and the Washington Examiner—has
been meeting privately since early this year to concoct talking points,
coordinate messaging, and hatch plans for "a 30 front war seeking to
fundamentally transform the nation," according to documents obtained by Mother Jones.

AG Holder to seek ‘bail-in’ of Texas under Section 3 of the Voting Rights Act

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The New York Times reports today, Holder
Wants Texas to Clear Voting Changes With the U.S.:

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced on Thursday that the Justice Department would ask a court to require Texas to get permission from the federal government before making voting changes in that state. The move opens a new chapter in the political struggle over election rules after the Supreme Court struck down a portion of the Voting Rights Act last month.

In a speech
before the National Urban League in Philadelphia, Mr. Holder also
indicated that the filing, expected later on Thursday, was most likely
just an opening salvo in a new Obama administration strategy to try to
reimpose “preclearance” requirements in parts of the country that have a
history of discriminating against minority voters.

* * *

“This is the department’s first action to protect voting rights
following the Shelby County decision, but it will not be our last,” Mr.
Holder said. “Even as Congress considers updates to the Voting Rights
Act in light of the court’s ruling, we plan, in the meantime, to fully
utilize the law’s remaining sections to subject states to preclearance
as necessary. My colleagues and I are determined to use every tool at
our disposal to stand against such discrimination wherever it is found.”

(Update) Voter ID on trial in Pennsylvania

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

This trial was originally scheduled for nine days, but it looks as if we are going into extra innings.

The eighth day of trial on Pennsylvania's voter-identification law ended
in disarray Wednesday as plaintiffs' attorneys contesting the law's
constitutionality refused to rest their case until they learn more about
potential problems in issuing mandatory photo ID cards. Pa. voter ID trial recesses in disarray:

Commonwealth Court Judge Bernard McGinley expressed impatience at the slow pace of the trial and cleared the courtroom briefly to huddle with lawyers from both sides, but court recessed for the day with little sign of a compromise. The state did, however, present some testimony in defense of the law.

Update on Special Action challenge to the consolidated elections bill

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Last year, Rep. Michelle Ugenti (R-Scottsdale) sponsored HB 2826 (consolidated election dates; political subdivisions), a bill providing for the consolidation of elections in the fall of even numbered years only. The law will apply to elections in 2014 and thereafter.

The City of Tucson filed its special action for declaratory and
injunctive relief on October 10, 2013 in the Pima County Superior Court,
City of Tucson v. State of Arizona et al. (Case No.
C20126272). The City of Phoenix Intervened as a
plaintiff. The case is assigned to Judge James E. Marner.

The case goes to trial today at 9:00 a.m. in the Pima County Superior Court, Room 808. The matter is scheduled for one day.

I am glad to see that the Arizona Daily Star has finally assigned a reporter to this case, Darren DaRonco. Who controls local elections at issue in suit against state :

Tucson will be in court today for the first round in its most recent
legal battle with the state over who controls local elections.

Tucson
and Phoenix will jointly ask Pima County Superior Court Judge James
Marner to overturn a state law mandating all elections occur in
even-numbered years.

The Legislature passed the bill in 2012 over the vehement opposition of most incorporated cities and towns across the state.