Judge: GOP ballot measure aimed at teachers union unconstitutionally guts police, fire unions too

A Republican ballot referral that sought to amend the state’s constitution to put the state’s largest teacher’s union out of business was tossed off the ballot on Tuesday after a judge concluded that it also would have outlawed all public sector unions. 

And that violates the Arizona Constitution’s Separate Amendment Rule, which demands that proposed constitutional amendments be limited to a single action, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Gregory Como ruled.

The legal challenge to House Concurrent Resolution 2040 centered on sweeping language tucked into the measure that Como said goes far beyond barring school districts from working with unions for its teachers and other workers. The provision stated that “this state or any political subdivision of this state” — boilerplate language commonly used in legislation intended to comprehensively ban governments from doing something — “may not negotiate with a labor organization an exclusive representation agreement, collective bargaining agreement, memorandum of understanding, contract or other agreement regarding the terms and conditions of employment.” 

Senate President Warren Petersen, who is running to be attorney general, and House Speaker Steve Montenegro argued that the language needed to be read in context of the larger measure, which was all about school districts and their employees.

But Como said that interpretation was hogwash.

“The Court finds no ambiguity in the phrase ‘this state or any political subdivision of this state may not negotiate with a labor organization,’” he wrote, adding that the HCR’s own definition of what “labor organization” means was broad. “Far from limiting the term to teachers’ unions or school employee associations, the definition does not even mention such organizations.” 

Como noted that, while some of the HCR does single out unions for teachers and other school employees, when it begins to speak to contracting with local governments, it shifts to a broader tone. 

“It flatly prohibits the State of Arizona or any local government from contracting with any labor union,” Como wrote. 

HCR2040 was crafted by Republican lawmakers as a retaliatory measure aimed at the Arizona Education Association because of the union’s ballot referral to reform and regulate the state’s universal school voucher program. 

It was at the center of last-minute negotiations between Republicans and the teacher’s union at the end of the legislative session where Republicans had allegedly promised to drop the union-busting ballot referral if certain reforms to the ESA program were passed. In turn, the AEA would have dropped its measure. 

Those negotiations fell apart, and Republicans ended up sending HCR2040 to the ballot. After the Arizona Mirror reported on how it could potentially bar all public sector unions — including police and fire unions — the AEA filed a lawsuit that alleged the ballot measure violated the Separate Amendment Rule.

The court ultimately sided with AEA ruling that the measure violates the Separate Amendment rule of the Arizona constitution noting that. 

In his ruling, Como wrote that taking out the offending language was not an option.

“When a proposed ballot measure violates the Separate Amendment Rule, severance of the offending provision is not an option,” he ruled. “The entire measure fails.” 

Kim Quintero, a spokeswoman for Arizona Senate Republicans, said they will not appeal the ruling. 

In a statement, the AEA decried the legislature for attempting to put the measure on the ballot and encouraged voters to support “pro-education” candidates when they head to the polls in November. 

“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 HCR2040 to target educators, police and firefighters and undermine our ability to advocate for ourselves and our students,” AEA President Marisol Garcia said. “The Superior Court struck down HCR2040, but the only way to protect educators is by changing leadership and putting pro-education candidates in office.”