Courts & Law

Arizona’s campaign contribution limits challenged in court

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Posted  by AzBlueMeanie:

Last week the Arizona Supreme Court declined jursidiction over a direct special action filed by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission, Arizona Advocacy Network, Louis J. Hoffman and Rep. Victoria Steele to challenge HB 2539, which raised the campaign contribution limits for traditionally funded candidates, but did not similarly adjust the campaign contribution limits for Clean Elections candidates, in violation of the Citizens Clean Elections law formula.

It also violates the Voter Protection Act, Prop. 105 (1998), which requires a three-fourths super-majority vote of each chamber of the legislature to amend a voter approved measure, which must also be consistent with the purpose and intent of the measure. HB 2539 clearly is not.

The Arizona Supreme Court declining jurisdiction was not unexpected. The Arizona Supreme Court rarely accepts jursidiction of a direct special action. The Citizens Clean Elections Commission subsequently voted to authorize its counsel, Joe Kanefield, to refile the suit in Maricopa County Superior Court to challenge HB 2539.

On Tuesday, supporters of Citizens Clean Elections asked a judge to block new higher campaign contribution limits from taking effect as scheduled while their legality is litigated. The commission is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief from the court. Supporters ask judge to block higher campaign limits:

Attorneys for the Citizens Clean Elections Commission and their
allies contend the larger allowable donations were enacted illegally
earlier this year. They contend lawmakers cannot let privately funded
candidates take a lot more money without getting a three-fourths vote
for the measure, which it did not get.

I’m shocked! (not) – GOP won’t fix the Voting Rights Act

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Neo-Confederate "states' rights" GOP that still clings to its racially polarizing Southern strategy of appealing to the racism of white voters to win elections is going to prevent any fixes to the Voting Rights Act. I'm shocked! (not).

Sahil Kapur reports at Talking Points Memo, The GOP Won’t Let Congress Fix The Voting Rights Act:

Ever since the Supreme Court gutted
a centerpiece of the Voting Rights Act and threw it back in Congress’s
lap, lawmakers in both parties have engaged in happy talk about the
prospects of patching the provision used to proactively snuff out voter discrimination against minorities in the state and local governments where it’s most prevalent.

But it’s looking less and less likely that a fix will be agreed to
because Republicans have little to gain and a lot to lose politically if
they cooperate.

“Ain’t gonna happen,” Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) said late last week, according to Roll Call.

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.”