[EL] AZ judicial candidate speech case

[Rick Hasen]

    Ninth Circuit Issues Split Decision on AZ Judicial Candidate Speech
    Code <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=61384>

Posted on May 9, 2014 12:11 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=61384>by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Via Mike Sacks 
<https://twitter.com/MikeSacksEsq/status/464826256606134272> comes news 
of this new decision <http://t.co/1C4ZsGw7PO>. Majority by Judge Paez; 
concurrence by Judge Berzon, and dissent by Judge Tallman.

The majority opinion begins:

    A state sets itself on a collision course with the First Amendment
    when it chooses to popularly elect its judges but restricts a
    candidate's campaign speech. The conflict arises from the
    fundamental tension between the ideal of apolitical judicial
    independence and the critical nature of unfettered speech in the
    electoral political process. Here we must decide whether several
    provisions in the Arizona Code of Judicial Conduct restricting
    judicial candidate speech run afoul of First Amendment protections.
    Because we are concerned with content-based restrictions on
    electioneering-related speech, those protections are at their apex.
    Arizona, like
    every other state, has a compelling interest in the reality and
    appearance of an impartial judiciary, but speech restrictions must
    be narrowly tailored to serve that interest. We hold that several
    provisions of the Arizona Code of Judicial Conduct
    unconstitutionally restrict the speech of non-judge candidates
    because the restrictions are not sufficiently narrowly tailored to
    survive strict scrutiny. Accordingly, we reverse the district
    court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Defendants.

Mike asks <https://twitter.com/MikeSacksEsq/status/464828286254592000> 
the important question: "So...what happens when a sitting judge running 
for a judgeship complains his non-judge opponent has a campaign advantage?"

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-- 
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
949.824.0495 - fax
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http://electionlawblog.org

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