(C) Arizona Mirror
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AG agrees that law banning filming police is unconstitutional: settlement pending [1]
['Caitlin Sievers', 'More From Author', '- July']
Date: 2023-07
An Arizona law that banned filming police in certain circumstances will be blocked permanently through a settlement agreement between media organizations and civil rights advocates and Attorney General Kris Mayes.
The law, which was approved last year by the state legislature and signed by then-Gov. Doug Ducey via House Bill 2319, has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge since last September and has never gone into effect.
The law would have made it a crime to create video recordings of police officers while within eight feet of where “law enforcement activity” was happening. If the person recording the video refused to stop after being told to, they could have faced a misdemeanor charge and as many as 30 days in jail.
But through a settlement agreement recently reached between the plaintiffs in the case, including the Arizona Mirror and other media and civil rights organizations, and Mayes, the law would be officially declared unconstitutional for violating the First Amendment.
Through the settlement, the Attorney General’s Office also acknowledges that “there is a clearly established right to record law enforcement officers engaged in the exercise of their official duties.”
The police recording law cannot “withstand intermediate scrutiny because the law prohibits or chills a substantial amount of First Amendment protected activity and is unnecessary to prevent interference with police officers given other Arizona laws in effect,” the plaintiffs and Mayes agreed in the proposed settlement.
The settlement was filed Wednesday, but has not yet been approved by U.S District Court Judge John Tuchi, who could make amendments to the agreement. It’s unknown when Tuchi will rule on the proposed settlement.
“We’re very happy that we have hopefully put an end to this case and to this unconstitutional law,” Matthew Kelley, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, told the Arizona Mirror. “It should send a message to the state legislature that if they persist in passing legislation that is unconstitutional, it’s going to get overturned in the courts, and it’s going to cost the state money, both to defend such laws and attorney’s fees to the plaintiffs who have to go to court to overturn those laws.”
Kelley said that he was grateful that Mayes acknowledged the law was unconstitutional and also agreed to reimburse the plaintiffs for some of their legal fees.
The plaintiffs in the legal challenge are the Mirror and its parent, States Newsroom; the Arizona Broadcasters Association; the Arizona Newspapers Association; the parent company of Fox 10 Phoenix; the parent company of KTVK 3TV, KPHO CBS 5 News and KOLD News 13; KPNX 12 News; NBCUniversal, which owns Telemundo Arizona; the National Press Photographers Association; Phoenix Newspapers Inc., which owns The Arizona Republic; Scripps Media, which owns ABC15 in Phoenix and KGUN9 in Tucson; and the ACLU of Arizona.
If the settlement is approved, the Attorney General’s Office will reimburse the plaintiffs for $69,000 in attorney fees, with $23,000 going to ACLU of Arizona and $46,000 to be dispersed among the plaintiffs from various media organizations.
“We’re grateful to our news partners and the ACLU for fighting this attempt to infringe on the rights of Arizonans to document the public conduct of law enforcement officers,” said Andrea Verykoukis, deputy director of States Newsroom.
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[1] Url:
https://www.azmirror.com/blog/ag-agrees-that-law-banning-filming-police-is-unconstitutional-settlement-pending/
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