Homeless in Arizona

And that is a problem at all levels of government from cities and school districts to the Federal government.

Personally I suspect that at the Federal level almost all of the laws passed are unconstitutional based on the US Constitution's concept of a very limited Federal government.

We are told that Constitutions are there to limit the power of government, but when elected officials ignore the Constitution and pass these blatantly unconstitutional laws they don't even get a slap on the wrist for violating the Constitution. And as long as that is true I suspect the practice of routinely passing unconstitutional laws will continue.

Source

Controversial Arizona laws rack up big legal fees

By Alia Beard Rau The Republic | azcentral.com Mon May 13, 2013 11:26 PM

Arizona has led the nation in recent years with laws targeting illegal immigrants, abortions and school choice.

But being the first comes with a cost.

Lawsuits defending some of the state’s most controversial laws have cost millions of dollars and thousands of hours of state employee time, diverting them from other important work.

And with some lawsuits ongoing — and state lawmakers continuing to test the legal boundaries — costs will continue to climb.

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne blames the number of lawsuits in recent years, at least partly, on what he said appears to be the Obama administration’s agenda against Arizona. Gov. Jan Brewer’s office says such lawsuits are sometimes the cost of doing the right thing. The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, which has challenged the state in several of the cases, blames a Legislature and governor that it says are too willing to ignore the U.S. Constitution.

But some of these cases precede the current Republican state leadership and go back to the days of Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Terry Goddard.

The Attorney General’s Office is obligated to defend legal challenges to any state law or voter-approved measure, either with in-house attorneys or by hiring outside legal firms to help.

“There would be no one else to defend it,” Horne said. “It’s our responsibility.”

Most often, state attorneys handle the cases themselves. Private firms often bill hundreds of dollars an hour, and all sides agree that doing it in-house tends to be significantly cheaper.

The Attorney General’s Office was unable to determine the value of the hours spent on key cases in recent years.

Employees are paid regardless of which cases arise, and the hours spent on each case include staff at all salary levels, from legal secretaries to Horne himself.

In Horne’s office, the median salary, according to 2012 salary data of 580 Attorney General’s Office employees, comes out to about $55 an hour. [About $110,000 a year] Using that number, the state has spent more than $300,000 in the 21/2 years since Horne took office defending a voter-approved law requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and nearly $176,000 defending the state’s Clean Elections public-funding program for candidates.

Occasionally, the state does hire outside law firms, as has been the case with the controversial immigration law Senate Bill 1070, the state’s education standards for students learning English, and a legal challenge over requiring Medicaid co-pays.

The state paid more than $5 million to defend education requirements for students who are not proficient in English, according to the private attorneys’ billing data obtained via public-records request by The Arizona Republic.

The state paid $34,549 to defend a 2003 state law making co-pays mandatory for Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System patients.

Brewer has paid $3.2 million in private contributions to the Governor’s Border Security and Immigration Legal Defense Fund to defend SB 1070.

Brewer spokesman Matthew Benson said $530,500 remains in the legal-defense fund, which Brewer established in 2010 via executive order when she elected to hire a private attorney to represent her in the lawsuits instead of Goddard, who at the time was running against her for governor.

The case is still tied up in court, and the legal battle will likely continue for several years.

Horne said many of the lawsuits, such as SB 1070 and the law requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote, have arisen because Arizona was among the first to do something.

“Especially on the immigration issues, being on the border, it’s natural for us to deal with the issues earlier than other states,” he said.

Others, he said, seem to indicate the federal government is targeting Arizona. Arizona was among four states to pass a law requiring unions to allow secret ballots.

“The federal government wrote to all four states saying they would sue us. Four attorneys general wrote back saying we weren’t going to be intimidated,” Horne said. “They sued only one, us.”

ACLU of Arizona Executive Director Alessandra Soler said Brewer and the Legislature, not the federal government, are to blame for many of the lawsuits and associated costs in recent years. [Well to be honest it is the elected officials at all level of government that are the blame. There is no penalty to them if they pass blatantly unconstitutional laws, so they routinely pass unconstitutional laws for the special interest groups that helped get them into power.]

The ACLU and its clients have challenged the state in five of the 10 lawsuits over the most controversial laws in recent years: SB 1070, abortion laws, voter IDs, employer sanctions and school tax credits.

“We live in a state where our leaders have been ignoring the Constitution in favor of playing politics,” Soler said. “On too many occasions, this Legislature and Governor Brewer have approved bills that were clearly going to be struck down by the courts, and the taxpayers end up paying the price every time.” [And of course the problem also routinely happens at the Federal level because there is no penalty to member of the Congress and Senate who pass unconstitutional laws.]

She said the state should have known many of these laws were unconstitutional before they even passed them. [And I am sure that the folks who introduced and voted for these laws know that they were unconstitutional 99.9 percent of the time.]

“These laws got through because of the influence of these extremists in the Arizona Legislature, and the governor refused to take them on,” she said.

Particularly with SB 1070, Soler said, the state spent millions defending a law that may soon be moot.

“It’s unfortunate that the people of Arizona had to suffer through costly litigation before realizing that laws like SB 1070 have no place in this country,” she said. “Five out of the six challenged provisions have been struck down by the courts as unconstitutional. And we are now creating a path to citizenship for millions in this country.”

Benson said Brewer does what she believes is best for Arizona and will not be deterred by threats of legal action.

“You set policy based on what you think is the right thing to do,” he said. “You don’t set policy based on threats from groups like the ACLU who say they might sue.”

Benson said that is simply one of the costs of doing business as a state.

“I’m quite certain the Attorney General’s Office was busy under Terry Goddard and Governor Napolitano, as well,” he said.

Kansas has followed Arizona in passing several controversial laws. This year, its attorney general asked the Legislature for an additional $1.2 million to cover anticipated legal costs to defend some of these laws.

Horne said he has balanced the cost of defending state laws in a couple of ways.

“Generally, we don’t ask the Legislature for an increase in our budget,” he said. “I was in the Legislature myself, and I understand the pressure they are under with the budget.”

Instead, Horne juggles the resources he has. Money spent on these cases means less money spent investigating and litigating cases of fraud against the public, he said.

But last year, Horne did ask the Legislature for more money indirectly.

The Attorney General’s Office pursues collection cases for other state departments and gets 30 percent of the revenue, up to a certain amount.

Horne said that, last year, the Legislature expanded the cap from $3.4 million to $5.2 million.

“I told them we would put more resources into collections, and it would pay off,” Horne said. “We benefited to the tune of about $2 million, and the general fund benefited to the tune of about $4 million, enabling me to put more money toward my priorities, like work against drug traffickers.”

Horne said he may ask next year to raise the limit further.

COST OF ARIZONA LAWS

Arizona has defended a number of controversial state laws in court over the past decade.

Here are some of those lawsuits and the costs in hours and/or dollars:

Senate Bill 1070

In 2010, the Legislature passed and Gov. Jan Brewer signed Senate Bill 1070. Several individuals and organizations filed lawsuits challenging the law, including the federal government. The Department of Justice effort to halt the law from going into effect went to the U.S. Supreme Court, with the high court declaring part of the law unconstitutional and allowing part of it to go into effect. The underlying case and another case filed by immigrants and advocacy groups are still moving through the legal process and will likely be in the courts for years.

Attorney: Three private firms, paid for by the Governor’s Office with the Border Security Fund; Arizona Attorney General’s Office.

Hours: N/A for private firms; 1,830 AG hours.

Cost: $3.23 million for private firms; $69 in messenger-service fees for the Attorney General’s Office.

Employer sanctions

The Legal Arizona Workers Act, often called the employer-sanctions law, went into effect in 2008 and gives prosecutors the power to revoke the business license of an employer found to have knowingly hired an illegal immigrant. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2011 upheld the law as constitutional.

Attorney: Attorney General’s Office, with assistance from outside attorneys.

Hours: 2,134 AG hours.

Cost: $2,950 for outside attorneys; $16,424 for messenger service, shipping, court transcripts, travel to out-of-state court hearings and copies.

English-language learners

Since 1992, proponents and opponents of the state’s requirements for students learning to speak English have battled in the court system. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2009 largely sided with the state, but the battle continued. Earlier this year, the U.S. District Court in Arizona ruled that the programs do not violate federal civil-rights laws. That ruling is now being appealed.

Attorney: Four private law firms, paid out of the Arizona Department of Administration.

Hours: N/A.

Cost: $5,029,973.

Clean Elections

In 2008, a handful of current and former lawmakers filed a federal lawsuit challenging the legality of the state’s public-elections funding system. It went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the program’s matching-funds portion was unconstitutional.

Attorney: Attorney General’s Office.

Hours: 3,199 AG hours.

Cost: $22,253 for court transcripts, court-reporting fees, messenger service, shipping, travel and printing.

AHCCCS co-pays

Lawmakers made co-payments for patients in the state’s Medicaid program, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, mandatory in 2003. Two federal lawsuits have been filed challenging the law over the years. U.S. District Court judges in both cases, one this past February, rejected the co-pays.

Attorney: Johnston Law Office, paid for by AHCCCS.

Hours: 157 AG hours.

Cost: $34,549.

Voter IDs

Arizona voters in 2004 passed a measure requiring voters to show identification at the polls and proof of citizenship to register to vote. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2012 ruled that the state could not require proof of citizenship for voters registering with the federal forms. The U.S. Supreme Court heard the case in March and is expected to rule later this summer.

Attorney: Attorney General’s Office, with some assistance from outside attorneys.

Hours: 5,645 AG hours.

Cost: $25,000 for outside attorneys; $95,102 for court transcripts, court reporting, court filing fees, messenger service, printing, expert witnesses, shipping and travel.