(The Center Square) – How protected is political free speech in Arizona?
It’s in the top five in terms of best places in the country for it, a new report says.
The Institute for Free Speech released its rankings for how states perform on issues like “free speech and association rights of individuals and groups interested in speaking about candidates, issues of public policy, and their government.”
The Institute ranked Arizona fifth on its list with a 67% score out of 100.
Arizona received high marks for permitting lobbying, not regulating issue speech near elections, allowing Super PACs, and for having any false statement laws.
“Laws regulating political engagement and the accompanying harms they cause to free speech and association are often presented as necessary to ‘good government,’” the Institute’s report says. “But good government does not go hand-in-hand with regulation of citizen political activity. The complex maze of laws that result make it extremely difficult for citizens to even evaluate the overall climate for free speech about public affairs in their states; this, in turn, allows government officials to avoid the accountability that comes from citizen activism.”
However, the state received a zero in the “definition of campaign expenditure” category. The Institute says Arizona doesn’t clearly define what a campaign expenditure is in the state.
The Institute for Free Speech says states should follow the Supreme Court’s guidance when defining “expenditure.”
“In Buckley v. Valeo, the Supreme Court allowed for the limited regulation of spending on campaign speech that specifically and overtly “advocate[s] the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate,” the Institute’s report says. “For 45 years, states have pushed the envelope – attempting to regulate more and more speech by expanding what speech qualifies as an expenditure. State regimes with broad definitions of “expenditure” have regularly been found by courts to unconstitutionally restrict too much speech. States should heed this case law.”
Arizona had the second-best rating of any southwestern state. Nevada (70%) ranked slightly better at fourth on the list.
