Court: Legislators not immune from suits over news releases
Arizona lawmakers might issue a lot of news releases, but they cannot claim legislative immunity protects them from lawsuits over what they say in those releases, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.
With its decision, the state’s highest court cleared the way for part of a defamation lawsuit filed by an expelled legislator against the former speaker of the House of Representatives.
The House expelled state Rep. Don Shooter, R-Yuma, in 2018 following allegations of sexual harassment.
Shooter denied wrongdoing, however, and sued then-House Speaker J.D. Mesnard for defamation, accusing him of editing an investigative report about the allegations to place Shooter in a bad light. The former lawmaker also accused Mesnard, R-Chandler, of making defamatory statements in a press release that described Shooter as engaging in retaliation and intimidation.
Mesnard countered that courts should have dismissed the lawsuit in part because of his position as a legislator, citing legislative immunity and contending that the report and press release were part of his work as speaker of the House.
Legislative immunity is meant to protect lawmakers from lawsuits over their comments during debates or in written reports.
And while the state Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday that the report on Shooter fell into that protected category, it ruled that the press release did not.
Writing for the court, Vice Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer noted that legislators are unquestionably immune from criminal responsibility and civil liability for “things generally done in a session of the House by one of its members in relation to the business before it.”
But legislative immunity has its limits when it comes to what she described as political acts.
“Making speeches outside the legislative body, performing tasks for constituents, sending newsletters, issuing news releases and the like are political acts, which are unprotected by legislative immunity,” Timmer wrote.
Chief Justice Robert Brutinel joined the decision with Justices John Lopez and Bill Montgomery. Justice Clint Bolick issued his own opinion concurring with the results. Justices James Beene and Andrew Gould recused themselves.
The court sent the decision back to a lower court with instructions to dismiss the defamation claims regarding the report and proceed with the claims regarding the news release, “subject to any evidence that Mesnard was authorized to issue the release as speaker and that exercising such authority constituted a legislative function subject to absolute immunity.”