PHOENIX, ARIZONA – In a win for the First Amendment rights of all Arizonans, a Maricopa County Superior Court Judge ruled that a number of provisions within the 2023 Elections Procedures Manual “contains … speech restrictions in violations of our Arizona Constitution, misstates or modifies our statutes, and fails to identify any distinction between guidance and legal mandates.” The order came from Arizona Free Enterprise Club v. Fontes, which was filed to challenge the constitutionality of many sections from the manual.
“We applaud the court’s protection of Arizonans’ First Amendment rights during the exercise of their sacred privilege to vote in free and fair elections,” said Scot Mussi, President of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. “The judge correctly realized that certain portions of Secretary Fontes’ illegal and radical manual were nothing more than a brazen attempt to destroy the integrity and transparency of state elections. Secretary Fontes and his team of leftwing ideologues must conform the entire manual to state law as is their statutory duty.”
According to the complaint from the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, the 2023 EPM improperly placed protected political speech at risk of criminal prosecution and had an unconstitutional chilling effect on protected political speech.
The court order states, “…Many of the prohibitions listed in the EPM are free speech and protected by both the Arizona Constitution and the U.S. Constitution. What, for example, constitutes a person communicating about voter fraud in a harassing manner? Or, for that matter, ‘posting’ a sign in an intimidating manner? How does a person either do this behavior – whatever it means – or avoid it? And what content printed on a t-shirt might be offensive or harassing to one and not another? What if the t-shirt says, ‘I have a bomb and I intend to vote!’? Where does the Secretary draw the line?”
Read the court order here.
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