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Judge issues permanent order ending Arizona law that bans bystander recordings of police [1]
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Date: 2022-09-26
Sponsored by former police officer and Republican state Rep. John Kavanagh, the law was introduced to protect officers from potential harm or distraction outside of the incident they are already involved in, Kavanagh wrote in an op-ed.
Exceptions to the law included people considered to be at the center of an interaction with police, including anyone standing in an enclosed structure on private property where police activity is occurring, and occupants of a vehicle stopped by police.
According to Reuters, the order to block the law came from Judge John Tuchi, who granted a request for a preliminary injunction supported by the ACLU of Arizona and several news organizations, including the Arizona Broadcasters Association, Fox Television Stations LLC, NBCUniversal Media LLC, and the National Press Photographers Association.
“If the goal of HB 2319 is to prevent interference with law enforcement activities, the Court fails to see how the presence of a person recording a video near an officer interferes with the officer’s activities,” Tuchi wrote.
A week after Tuchi’s block was announced, Arizona legislators in both the Senate and House said they would not intervene in the case, resulting in a permanent injunction on Sept. 16, the Associated Press reported.
It seems that the Republicans supporting the law realized the unconstitutionality of it and how it impacts the First Amendment.
But of course, not all Republicans seemed to be okay with dropping the bill. Kavanagh told Reuters he was “disappointed” the Attorney General and legislature did not defend the bill, and plans to draft a new bill in January after reviewing the judge’s reasoning.
Since before the legislation was signed into law, advocates had warned it violated the First Amendment. Additionally, in opposing the bill, they referenced how several incidents of police misconduct in the last few years were revealed due to bystander cellphone videos, including the 2020 killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. Despite these facts, Arizona’s Republican lawmakers at the time said the legislation was needed to limit people with cameras who deliberately impede officers, the Associated Press reported.
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