Arizona State Law Journal Blog

Introduction As of January 29, 2021, over 500,000 Arizonans have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. However, the state is still reporting over 4,000 new cases of COVID-19 per day and has remained number one in the U.S. for new cases per week. During the COVID-19 pandemic, workplaces have been a source of particularly high risk, especially settings such as factories, schools, and correctional facilities. On December 16, 2020, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a set of questions and answers providing guidance to employers about legal issues relating to COVID-19. The commission advised that employers can mandate employees to receive the vaccine; however, there are detailed, specific guidelines that the employer must follow in order to remain in compliance with federal law. Americans with Disabilities…

By Taylor Hamel.Though the sun was not blazing over Arizona’s desert landscape on the chilly afternoon of January 22, 2021, the state’s residents were. That is because January 22 was the first day of the legal sale of recreational marijuana by licensed dispensaries in Arizona.Arizona voters approved the Smart and Safe Arizona Act (Proposition 207) in the November 2020 election which legalized recreational marijuana in the state. Although it was impossible to legally purchase recreational marijuana until dispensaries were licensed to sell it, the Arizona Department of Health Services (“AZDHS”) approved licenses far earlier than the projected March 2021 date. After AZDHS approved licenses for 86 dispensaries on January 22, long lines began to form, requiring some customers to wait for multiple hours before making their long-awaited purchases. Some dispensaries…

By Sean Krieg.Businesses’ liability protection from corona virus related claims has been a major point of contention in federal stimulus package debates. Firms point out—rightly so—that many small- and mid-sized businesses cannot afford to weather a large influx of claims during a pandemic-battered economy. Spurred to action by federal gridlock, at least sixteen states have enacted some form of COVID liability shield. House Bill 2912 sought to do the same for Arizona. Approved in the House of Representatives, the bill died in the Senate during the 2020 legislative session. Even so, with the pandemic still raging and Governor Ducey supporting the issue in his recent State of the State Address, the bill may well be revived. However, despite the superficial appeal, Arizonans have little to gain from limiting the right to…

Nathaniel Rubin, 1L It’s time for an overhaul of qualified immunity in America. Police misconduct, particularly relating to their use of force with communities of color, has been at the forefront of the national conversation for almost a decade. Society has been outraged by police officers avoiding the consequences for their actions, leading to a widespread societal perception that police the police are above the law. "Prison cells" by miss_millions is licensed under CC BY 2.0 So, are police officers above the law? In American civil law, they might as well be, thanks to qualified immunity—the doctrine of qualified immunity grants broad immunity against suit to government officials acting in a discretionary capacity. The United States Supreme Court in Harlow v. Fitzgerald held that the defendant officials’ offending conduct must violate clearly…

By Joanna Jandali. Suffice to say, 2020 was a year of reckoning. From a global pandemic to a severe economic downturn to record-breaking natural disasters, this past year was defined by one destabilizing shock after another. Yet, what has remained consistent throughout this turbulent time has been the disproportionate impact felt by Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities, from COVID-19 infection and mortality rates to unemployment rates. The events of 2020 underscored and compounded our system’s long-marked racial disparities. However, with the accentuation of systemic inequities also came a chance for change. The 2020 election was an opportunity for voters to react in real time to the events of this past year. Arizona’s reaction included passing Proposition 207, which legalizes the use of recreational marijuana. Though at first blush Proposition 207…

By Joel Truett.The CaseIn the wake of this year’s presidential election, President Trump promised to take legal action to challenge the counting of the vote in several states.  Cases have been brought across the country, with supporters of the President continuing to argue that failures in vote counting or voter fraud were responsible for Joe Biden’s lead. Here in Arizona, the Trump campaign brought a case in Maricopa County alleging that they had evidence of “overvotes” being handled improperly  on election day. They argued that this was evidence of systematic errors in counting the vote that affected the election results. While this case was later withdrawn by the campaign, the hearing held on November 12 served as an interesting look at how the rules of evidence can influence election cases.…

By Stephanie Deskins.On September 22, 2020, the Arizona Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Jessie D. v Department of Child Safety, F.V., M.D., M.D., C.D. The juvenile court terminated Jessie’s parental rights to his four children because he is currently serving seven years in prison. On appeal, the Arizona Court of Appeals agreed with the juvenile court’s decision. The Arizona Supreme Court granted Jessie’s Petition for Review, and their upcoming decision could impact the parental rights of other incarcerated individuals and clarify the extent of DCS’ legal obligation to encourage and support the reuniting of families.  THE FACTSAfter one of Jessie’s children accidentally burned down their family home in August of 2016, his four children and their mother stayed at a UMOM homeless shelter. Because Jessie had…

It is hard to think of something more patently unfair than a person being convicted and imprisoned for a crime they did not commit. But that is exactly what happened in 1980 to Cathy Woods. Cathy spent nearly thirty-four years in prison in Nevada after falsely confessing to the murder of a woman, which she did in an attempt to get a better room at the psychiatric hospital where she was a patient. Despite her history of mental illness and other false claims she made—including that she worked for the FBI and that her mother was poisoning her—she was convicted and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. It was not until 2014 that her conviction was vacated due to new DNA evidence that failed to tie her to…

Today, nearly half of American workers are working from home full-time. As COVID-19 cases across the country and in Arizona specifically continue to rise, it is clear that working from home is the new normal. Teachers are lesson planning from their living rooms, therapists are Zooming with clients from their kitchens, news anchors are telecasting live from their dining rooms, and many other workers are working from their home offices. Whether you have always worked from home or have recently transitioned due to COVID-19 safety measures, you may be wondering whether you can claim a federal income tax deduction for the home office expenses you have incurred in the year 2020. Unfortunately, and perhaps surprisingly, the answer is likely no.The 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) "Home Office" by…

By Sarah Brunswick.Before a chunk of coal or beam of sunlight can charge a phone or brew coffee, electricity must first be made (generation), transported to your area (transmission), and delivered to your home (distribution). Electric utilities make this happen for the smallest of households and the largest of Amazon server farms. Thus, utilities make an ideal target for renewable energy policies.Renewable portfolio standards (RPSs) have been one of the most successful policies in driving renewable energy development. Renewable portfolio standards set goals, or mandates, for what percentage of electricity sales or production should be renewable by a target date. In states with mandatory RPSs, utilities are forced to diversify their energy sources. In voluntary states, incentives drive utilities to make changes. Thirty-seven states have RPSs. Most states target between…