Judge OKs Recall Election Against Author Of Arizona Immigration

Author of Arizona's controversial immigration law, State Senator Russell Pearce, faces a recall election. Arizona Superior Court Judge Hugh Hegyi has given the go-ahead for a recall election, despite Pearce's objections to some of the signatures on the recall petition. The petition was filed by a group named Citizens for a Better Arizona, in June, and was based on 10,365 signatures collected in Pearce's district. Only 7,759 were needed for the recall.

The reasons for the recall were, among other things, the immigration law, Pearce's support of the "birther movement" that questioned President Barack Obama's citizenship, and the Senator's opposition to the 14th Amendment. In broad terms, the 14th Amendment defines citizenship (granting it then to blacks and other minorities), the legal protection of due process, that prohibits state and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without certain steps being taken to ensure fairness, and equal protection, requiring each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people within its jurisdiction.

On Friday, Superior Court Judge Hugh Hegyi rejected a challenge of the recall by Pearce's attorney Lisa Hauser, who argued that a number of the signatures didn't meet state requirements.

Hauser's legal challenge alleged several problems with the signatures, including that none of the petition forms complied with state requirements that a petition gatherer sign an oath that the signatures are "genuine" and that the recall statement was misleading and did not clearly explain that signing the petition would support a recall election.

"As the Supreme Court has stated, recall petitions are 'not a judicial (proceeding) but political in nature,'" Hegyi wrote. "The voters may recall a public official for any reason or no reason at all."

Hauser needs to get over 2,609 of the 10,365 signatures thrown out in order to stop the recall election. She says she will appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Citizens for a Better Arizona filed the petition with Arizona's Secretary of State in June, citing the immigration law, Pearce's occasional forays into birtherism, and his opposition to the 14th Amendment, among other things, as reasons for the recall.