Arizona Supreme Court Explains Why It Allowed Russell Pearce Recall Election

The Arizona Supreme Court released an opinion Monday explaining the reasoning behind its unanimous September decision to allow a recall election to proceed against State Senate President Russell Pearce (R-Maricopa County).

The Supreme Court explained that it wanted to respect the intent of the drafters of the state constitution in allowing the recall election, which was the first used against a member of the state legislature since Arizona became a state in 1912.

The case involved a challenge to the recall petition by Pearce supporters, who said that the petition lacked clear reasoning and a certification form for the signatures, the Arizona Republic reported. Lisa Hauser, an election attorney based in Phoenix, filed the lawsuit for voter Franklin Bruce Ross, and Chief Justice Rebecca White Berch wrote the opinion.

Adopting Hauser's claims that the Pearce recall petitions should be subject to a tougher standard would make it harder for Arizonans to recall elected officials. That's not what the state's founding fathers had in mind, Berch wrote.

"The delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1910 were willing to risk statehood over a robust recall system that subjected every official to removal," Berch wrote. "Adopting a standard that makes it more difficult for the public to remove its own officers would frustrate that historical intent."

Hauser said she hadn't read the opinion and could not comment.

Pearce, the architect of Arizona's controversial immigration law, was recalled from office last week, losing the election to fellow Republican Jerry Lewis. The recall against Pearce came in response to the immigration law, which was signed by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer last year. Pearce was one of four state legislators to be recalled in 2011, along with senators in Wisconsin and a state representative in Michigan.

Pearce may be able to ask the state to reimburse him for the costs of his recall campaign, under an obscure clause in the state constitution. While Pearce has not indicated if he will indeed ask the state to pass a special law allowing him to collect the funds, attorneys have said the clause would send the state into unknown legal territory.

The Supreme Court's release of the decision comes days before the court is scheduled to take up arguments relating to Brewer and the Senate's decision to remove state independent redistricting chairwoman Colleen Coyle Mathis from office. Mathis is arguing that the decision -- made two weeks ago -- violated her due process under the state constitution. Attorneys in Arizona have told The Huffington Post that the court is likely to follow the same precedent as the Pearce case, by making a decision soon after the hearing on Thursday and then releasing the formal opinion at a future date.

Comments

[treetracker]

08:15 AM on 11/16/2011

Good riddance to yet another Teanut.

[noaxe397]

08:05 AM on 11/16/2011

Conservatives in AZ are trying to spin the Pearce recall by saying it has nothing to do with SB1070 and more with Pearce's inability to work with even those in his own party..................They site the fact that Brewer ran as a strong supporter of SB1070 and easily won the governorship........................BTW, when the AZ constitution was written in 1910 it was the most progressive constitution of all the 48 states..............It was so progressive that the authors were warned the enabling legislation would be vetoed by President Taft because it allowed for the recall of judges............The AZ founders didn't care and Taft vetoed the original legislation.........................The authors took out the offending provision and Taft signed it into law....................The next year the residents of the state of AZ amended their constitution to allow the recall of judges.

[big tom]

07:19 AM on 11/16/2011

time wounds all heels.

[BBackSoon]

11:42 PM on 11/15/2011

So the Right hasn't packed the State Supreme Court?

[ProgressivesLoveAmerica]

11:35 PM on 11/15/2011

Maybe the people of Arizona would not have recalled Russell Pearce if he had earned an endorsement from J.T. Ready, who is a very prominent figure in conservative Arizona politics

[lulubelle1956]

10:47 PM on 11/15/2011

He and his Koch brother cronies will have to eat the cost of his recall, just as they would have had to eat the cost of his loss had he not defrauded the populace by remaining silent on his true plan once installed. In fact, the public should be seeking damages from him, the GOP/tp and the Kochs and POpe based on their conspiracy to defraud the voters in several states by omission.

[brittanicus01]

08:25 PM on 11/15/2011

My assumption is the vote was compromised by illegal aliens voting. To register in Arizona, all you have to show two pieces of paper with a name and address on. I have a computer and color printer and I can produce a utility or Internet bill very easily. Cut and paste as I do, to transfer my blogs across the web. .

[gibraltar]

09:54 PM on 11/15/2011

My assumption your technical knowledge and keen insights have won you every fan you have!

[Dosadi]

10:19 PM on 11/15/2011

Please do not try that. Those in charge of voter fraud are not the brightest on the planet but they have all been well versed in circumventing what you say can be done. They will discover that trick in an instant. Don't believe the propaganda about voter fraud. It does not happen enough to even be a statistic. It is a political buzz phrase intended to affect the minds of those who are weak and feeble. But if you try don't forget to write us from prison.

[hoochie-coochie]

07:18 PM on 11/15/2011

Hope his daughter marries a Mexican. The universe tends to work itself out.

[AZterritory]

07:11 PM on 11/15/2011

Why reset the count HP? He was recalled legally. Period. The Court couldn't have found otherwise.

[Sean777]

06:12 PM on 11/15/2011

Reasons why Russell Pearce was voted out of office:
In October 2006, Russell Pearce included the text of an article by National Alliance, a white separatist group, in an email to a group of supporters­. The article, titled "Who Rules America" contained criticism of the media, racism, and Holocaust denialism. Pearce was also criticized for his associatio­n with white supremacis­t J.T. Ready. Pearce endorsed Ready for Mesa City Council in 2006 and appeared with him at several rallies.
As lead sponsor of Arizona SB 1070, Pearce received assistance from the Federation for American Immigratio­n Reform (FAIR) in drafting the text for the legislatio­n. In December 2007, FAIR was identified as a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). In the early 1990s FAIR received funding from the Pioneer Fund, a eugenics society establishe­d in 1937 "to advance the scientific study of heredity and human difference­s" that the SPLC has described as a neo-Nazi organizati­on.
In November 2010, Pearce launched a push to reject US$7 billion in federal funding for Arizona’s Medicaid program, which serves more than one million people.
Pearce tried to pass a law requiring that presidential candidates prove they were born in the United States, a nod to "birthers" skeptical that Obama was born in the country. The bill died in the state Senate after it became the subject of national ridicule.

[Appleton]

06:04 PM on 11/15/2011

Mr. Pearce can ask the State of Arizona to reimburse his recall expenses as soon as he reimburses the State of Arizona for all of the attorney's fees incurred in the defense of his legislative fantasies.

[PoorRichardsHeartache]

06:00 PM on 11/15/2011

to say that SB1070 was the reason Pearce was recalled is a gross understatement. Pearce demonstrated time and again his willingness to codify discrimination, undermine the well being of the public as a whole, destroy the education system, and turn AZ into essentially a police state to be pillaged.

[mdmccormick]

05:44 PM on 11/15/2011

WOW a judiciary that has not been bought and paid for! That must have been overlooked in Arizona. Great news to its citizens for sure and very bad news for the Governor and her co-conspirators this could be great fun to watch.

[snapshot1940]

07:33 PM on 11/15/2011

The Supremes had no choice. To have done it any other way would have been to admit they were bought and paid for. Brewer is up next for recall.

[dahlia97]

09:34 PM on 11/15/2011

Is that a real possibility?

[twain307]

05:41 PM on 11/15/2011

This article claims that "The recall against Pearce came in response to the immigration law" which is partially true, but there were multiple other reasons, including but not limited to his record on education, the way he approached the state budget, his receiving thousands of dollars worth of sporting event tickets (which he claimed he paid for, but could never produce a cancelled check) and the way in which he ran the State Senate. AZ18 is a very conservative district with about a 70/30 ratio of registered Republican to Democrats. There were a whole lot more people who had grown weary of Pearce than just the latino community.

[Pat Snelling]

04:57 PM on 11/15/2011

Don't worry... Pearce owns stock in the PRIVATE PRISONS that hold these Latino "Immigrants." (Don't think they have very many white skinned immigrants. They don't look scary.)

Before illegal Immigrants were bussed home...Now, the NEW law has them held in these prisons.... and the FEDERAL government pays $$$$... So much for "smaller" government...

But like I said...Pearce will be fine...after SB 1070 passed.... His stock shot up...

Maybe the Private Prison will make him Warden...

[Dosadi]

10:21 PM on 11/15/2011

Or prisoner of the month.