Judge throws out Arizona's 'unconstitutional' ban on school mask mandates
Image Credit: Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey
Ross D. Franklin, Associated PressHoward Fischer Capitol Media Services
PHOENIX — A new state law barring schools from imposing mask mandates on students and staff is unconstitutional, a judge ruled Monday.
The law, passed by the Republican-led Legislature and signed by GOP Gov. Doug Ducey, must not take effect Wednesday, Sept. 29, as scheduled, the judge said.
In a broad ruling, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper also voided a host of other laws approved by the Legislature in the waning days of the session.
These range from requirements for anti-fraud measures for ballots; to prohibitions against cities and towns requiring face coverings or imposing curfews; to banning universities and community colleges from requiring proof of vaccination to attend; to limits on teaching "critical race theory.''
The judge did not find that any of these provisions, by themselves, is illegal.
What is, she said, was piling them into just four separate so-called "budget reconciliation'' bills, each with what she said are broad, generic titles that fail to inform voters of the changes they enact.
And Cooper said there are separate constitutional requirements that legislation deal with only a single subject.
"Together these requirements promote transparency and the public's access to information about legislative action,'' she wrote.
The judge also brushed aside claims by the state that the issue of how legislation is crafted is a "non-justiciable political question'' beyond the reach of the courts.
"The issue here is not what the Legislature decided but how it decided what it did,'' she wrote. "Whether the legislature complied with the requirements of (the Arizona Constitution) and whether a provision is reasonably related to 'budget reconciliation' are questions property before the court.''
Cooper also said if lawmakers try to enforce the provisions she declared unconstitutional she will issue further orders.
There was no immediate response from Republican legislative leaders who pushed the measures through and Ducey, who signed them."
