PHOENIX — State legislators are free to ignore laws they approved requiring public access to their meetings, and there's nothing courts can do about it, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday.
The state's Open Meeting Law requires that legislative committees conduct meetings publicly so"all persons so desiring shall be permitted to attend and listen to the deliberations and proceedings.''
People are also reading… "Our constitution neither expressly nor impliedly requires that legislative proceedings be open to the public,'' Timmer continued. The lawsuit said that process shut the public out of the process at the earliest stages of amendments to state law. The fact that there was a quorum of a committee present means the first action on legislation effectively occurred behind closed doors, the coalition said.
Timmer also said there's nothing in the constitution requiring the House or Senate to adopt any particular procedure or adhere to certain standards. That means there is no guidepost for the courts to determine whether the legislature is acting within its authority, she said. For example, Sandra Castro, an activist with the Puente Human Rights Movement, one of the groups filing the lawsuit, said SB1070, the 2010 Arizona law aimed at illegal immigration, came directly from a draft crafted at an ALEC meeting.
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