Arizona Legislature leaves, and lawsuits start: Group targets limits on ballot initiatives
Opponents of a measure to limit citizens’ rights to propose laws via the ballot launched a challenge on two fronts Thursday, filing a lawsuit and launching a referendum drive to repeal the law.
Their target is a bill Arizona lawmakers passed in April. It requires strict legal compliance for citizen initiatives and will take effect Aug. 9.
The lawsuit seeks to stop House Bill 2244 from becoming law. The suit, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, argues the law is unconstitutional and creates additional hurdles to the people’s right to propose laws through citizen initiatives.
The law would require initiative petitions to meet technical requirements, such as the size of the margin on a petition sheet. If a margin were off by a quarter of an inch, then arguably it would not strictly comply with the law, and the signatures on the petition could be disqualified.
The suit was filed on behalf of two individuals who been involved in citizen ballot drives, as well as the Animal Defense League, which has worked on various ballot measures dealing with the humane treatment of animals.
The suit names the state as the defendant and seeks both a preliminary injunction and a finding that the law is unconstitutional.
Gov. Doug Ducey’s office declined to comment. Deputy chief of staff Daniel Scarpinato said officials would first need to review the filing.
Sandy Bahr, one of the plaintiffs, said the initiative process allows citizens to propose environmental laws that the Legislature refuses to consider. Bahr is the director of the Arizona branch of the Sierra Club but is named in the suit on her own behalf.
“Arizona has a progressive Constitution,” she said. “It gives people the right to take issues directly to the people. The Legislature is trying to indirectly make it impossible for us to exercise this constitutional right.”
The lawsuit argues the new law violates the separation of powers because the Legislature is stepping into judicial terrain by requiring courts to impose strict legal compliance on the petitions citizen groups submit, said Roopali Desai, attorney for the plaintiffs.
In addition to filing the lawsuit, Desai filed the paperwork for the Voters of Arizona committee to begin circulating petitions to refer to the 2018 ballot both HB 2244 and House Bill 2404, a ban on paying petition circulators by the signature.
A separate referendum drive, Grassroots Citizens Concerned, has circulated petitions to block the signature-ban law for more than a month.
In addition, Save Our Schools Arizona also filed paperwork to start circulating referendum petitions on Senate Bill 1431, which expands the state school-voucher program.
The referenda drives have until Aug. 9 to gather 75,321 signatures per measure to stop them from becoming law and place them on the November 2018 ballot for voters to decide.