Judge rejects Arizona anti-union ballot measure, agrees it would affect more than teachers

A Maricopa County Superior Court Judge deemed a ballot measure that would severely restrict unions is unconstitutional, and can’t stay on the ballot.

Republican lawmakers created the proposal to target the Arizona Education Association, the state’s public school teacher’s union, following a fight over the union’s effort to restrict private school vouchers.

The AEA argued that the measure is written in such a way that it affects all unions, even though supporters said it would only affect teachers.

The measure would both ban school districts from using resources to support unions and also ban all state and local governments from contracting with any unions.

As written, the AEA argued the measure violates a constitutional requirement that measure stick to a single subject. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Gregory Como agreed.

The court found no ambiguity in the phrase “this state or any political subdivision of this state may not negotiate with a labor organization,” he wrote.

Republican lawmakers have the option to appeal the decision, but it’s an issue for them in two ways.

GOP lawmakers do want to limit the power of the AEA, but they also don’t want to run afoul of other unions.

Arizona’s police and fire unions are particularly displeased about the measure.

“I can't use the words I would use in a firehouse, but we are against it,” Dan Freiberg, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Arizona, said of HCR 2040 earlier in July.

Republicans made an effort to draw members into a special legislative session to amend the measure to ensure it would be specific to the AEA, but that fell through without support from Democrats who didn’t want to make it any easier for Republicans to pass their proposal.

Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert) didn’t respond to a request for comment on whether lawmakers will appeal the decision.

"While our state's educator shortage reaches crisis level with no end in sight, our elected leaders spent precious hours of this year's legislative session cooking up HCR 2040 to target educators, police and firefighters and undermine our ability to advocate for ourselves and our students,” AEA President Marisol Garcia said of Tuesday’s ruling.

She called for voters to put more “pro-education candidates” in office to protect teachers.