Courts & Law

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I have to admit that I was surprised by how quickly the Arizona Supreme Court entered its order setting aside the injunction of the Court of Appeals and agreed with the arguments of the "Kochtopus" Death Star, the Goldwater Institute, on higher campaign finance limits. It's as if there was no deliberation at all and the minds of the Justices were already made up before oral argument. That does not look good for appearance sake.

With its order allowing the higher campaign finance limits to go into effect, State Supreme Court lifts campaign finance limits, the Arizona Supreme Court has effectively ruled on the case despite the fact that a trial on the merits is pending before Superior Court Judge Mark Brain in the Maricopa County Superior Court. I am not sure what purpose would be served by proceeding with this litigation, other than to allow the "Kochtopus" Death Star to make its argument that there should be no campaign finance limits at all because "money=speech," under its gross distortion of the First Amendment.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Arizona Capitol Times followed up on its report last week on "Tenther" Sen. Kelli Ward's bill to "nullify the NSA" with this tidbit way down in the report: Ward intends to reintroduce here bill from last year to nullify the enforecment of federal gun laws in Arizona. AZ lawmaker ready to take on NSA:

After unsuccessfully pushing legislation to defend Arizonans’ 2nd Amendment rights in 2013, Sen. Kelli Ward is preparing to try again during next year’s legislative session.

The Lake Havasu City Republican told the Arizona Capitol Times she’ll file another bill, similar to 2013’s SB 1112, that would attempt to prevent certain federal gun laws from being enforced in Arizona.

Guns manufactured and owned within Arizona’s borders would also be made exempt from any federal gun law, according to Ward’s 2013 legislation.

Ward’s previous attempt to pass such legislation failed after Senate Rules Attorney Stacey Weltsch told lawmakers she had no doubt the measure would be struck down in court — that various portions of the law would have violated the Supremacy Clause, interstate commerce regulations and the separation of powers under the U.S. Constitution.

Despite Weltsch’s warnings, Ward’s bill still cleared the Rules Committee in 2013, but could never gather enough votes to pass on the Senate floor. Strong objections from Senate Democrats, as well as concerns from some GOP lawmakers, left it clear the bill lacked enough votes for approval.

The bill was held on the Senate floor, never coming up for a vote.

Cross posted from Arizona Eagletarian. On Blog for Arizona today, based on a new Florida Supreme Court ruling, AZBlueMeanie wrote a post making a case for an aggressive counterclaim to one or more of the (three) GOP lawsuits challenging legislative and congressional maps and the right of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission to conduct redistricting at all. … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Last month, the Arizona Court of Appeals issued a preliminary injunction against HB2593 (new higher campaign contribution limits) in a ruling in Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission, et al. v. The Honorable Mark H. Brain (CV13-0341-PR) and real parties in interest (.pdf). The Arizona Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Tuesday, … Read more