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Arizona Supreme Court Overturns Brewer’s Attempted Coup

Posted by Christian on Nov 17th, 2011 in News, Politics | 0 comments

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In 2000, Arizona voters passed an initiative that created an Independent Redistricting Committee. Arizona voters realized the need to take the drawing of the district maps out of the hands of the Legislature, where they could not gerrymander the districts. The committee was to be made of 5 members, 2 Republicans, 2 Democrats, and chaired by an Independent selected by unanimous vote of the other 4 members. Following the 2010 census, the committee set about the business of redrawing Arizona’s Congressional maps. With the way Arizona’s population is distributed, it’s a difficult task to create districts that are both competitive and respect ‘communities of interest’.

In this new map, which increased the number of districts from 8 to 9, four districts are heavily Republican, two are heavily Democratic, and three are competitive. Being the majority in nearly half the districts simply wasn’t enough for the AZGOP. Governor Jan Brewer called her toadies in the AZ Senate, and they impeached Colleen Mathis, the redistricting chair. What made this a blatant power grab by the Governor was the revelation that she wanted to impeach the two sitting Democrats as well, but knew she wouldn’t get the votes. The Republican members? Oh, nothing would happen to them.

The Governor impeached Mathis on ‘gross negligence‘, something that her office said “was to be defined at the discretion of the Governor”. Her office also argued before the court that the Governor’s critics shouldn’t be allowed to testify.

Brewer’s attorney, Lisa Hauser, contended the governor can remove any member of the commission and set her own definition of what “gross misconduct” and “substantial neglect of duty” mean.

Well, today Brewer got her comeuppance.

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the Governor’s actions were, in a word, illegal.

The Arizona Supreme Court late Thursday ruled that Gov. Jan Brewer acted illegally in firing Colleen Mathis from the Independent Redistricting Commission.

In a brief order, the justices brushed aside arguments by Lisa Hauser, the governor’s attorney,that Brewer’s decision was not subject to court review.

More to the point, they said that Brewer’s power to oust a commissioner is limited to situations of substantial neglect of duty or gross misconduct. The justices said that nothing the governor alleged in her letter firing Mathis rises to that level.

Perhaps it’s time to recall Brewer.