ACLU Files Records Requests to Require Senate, Law Enforcement Agencies to Disclose Details of Senate Ban Leading to February Arrests
For Immediate Release:
Monday, April 4, 2011
Contact:
Alessandra Soler Meetze at 602-418-5499 (cell) or 602-773-6006 (office)
PHOENIX – The ACLU of Arizona (ACLU-AZ) today filed a series of records requests seeking to prompt Senate President Russell Pearce, the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the Arizona State Capitol Police Department to release internal documents regarding restrictions on the exercise of First Amendment rights on Senate property. The formal requests for documents come after several individuals were apparently banned from entering the Senate building in February.
“The right to petition the government is one of the most precious rights we hold, and nowhere is that right more vital than at the seat of a legislative branch, “ said ACLU of Arizona Staff Attorney Annie Lai, who drafted the three requests. “The public has a right to know what authority the Senate President has to restrict access to the Senate building and what mechanisms are in place to prevent public officials from abusing that authority to suppress the voices of their critics.”
“The legislature can establish rules to ensure that legislators may peaceably carry out their lawmaking responsibilities, but those rules cannot prevent citizens from making their concerns known to elected officials. They certainly cannot allow for the selective banishment of individuals from the Senate simply because the President disagrees with their ideas, or the expression of those ideas,” added Lai.
In February, activists Salvador Reza and Anayanse Diana Garza were arrested when they attempted to enter the Senate to meet with a legislator. Senate President Pearce apparently ordered Reza banned from the building after calling him “the prime agitator” at a grueling 12-hour Senate Appropriations Committee hearing earlier in the week on several controversial immigration bills that Pearce was sponsoring. Reza was not in the room where the hearing was being held, but was looking on in an overflow room where audience members were applauding and booing. Reza was not provided with prior notification that he was prohibited from entering the building nor given any explanation for the restriction until after his arrest.
In the three requests filed today, the ACLU is requesting documents specifying the procedure for excluding individuals from Senate property, the criteria for making such determinations, and what notice and appeal procedures exist to protect from arbitrary or improper application of the exclusion. The separate requests to law enforcement ask for the instructions provided to them as to how they should enforce the exclusions, and the service and disciplinary records of the officers involved in the arrests.
“It’s imperative that the public demand transparency and a complete picture of the facts and circumstances surrounding these incidents,” added Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the ACLU of Arizona. “Given the increasing reports of closed door discussions at the Arizona Capitol on everything from budget negotiations to ethics violations, now is not the time to keep the Arizona public in the dark. Anything short of full disclosure will further erode the public’s trust in government.”
Read the records request to Senate President Russell Pearce.
Read the records request to the Records Request to DPS.pdf.
Read the records request to the Records Request to Capitol Police.pdf.