Arizona

Arizona v. California  – Tax

U.S. Supreme Court – Cert. Petition

The State of Arizona filed this lawsuit to prevent California from imposing tax liability on out-of-state businesses receiving passive income from companies operating in California. NFIB Legal Center joined in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to take this case to make clear that this form of extraterritorial taxation is unconstitutional.  

Salt River Project v. Tesla – Antitrust

U.S. Supreme Court

Tesla d/b/a SolarCity, which makes, sells, and installs solar panels, sued the Arizona power district in federal court and alleged that the district (which is the only supplier of traditional electric power in the area) had changed its rates to put SolarCity at a disadvantage – specifically, by imposing a large penalty on customers who get power from their own systems. That change, SolarCity contends, led to a dramatic drop in orders for new solar-panel systems in the district. The power district moved to dismiss the case, arguing that it cannot be sued under federal antitrust law because Arizona law gives it the authority to set prices – a doctrine known as “state-action immunity.” The district court and court of appeals denied the motion.

 

McLane v. EEOC – Legal Reform

U.S. Supreme Court

The Supreme Court will resolve a circuit split on the question of whether a district court’s decision to quash or enforce an EEOC subpoena should be reviewed de novo, which only the Ninth Circuit does, or should be reviewed deferentially, as eight other circuits do, consistent with existing precedent.

 

Arizona v. Hon. Warren J., Rose– Legal Reform

The people of Arizona passed an initiative giving crime victims a constitutional right to refuse interviews and depositions, from those accused of perpetrating a crime. Though the constitutional provision states that this protection applies to all crime victims in Arizona, the Legislature has enacted a statute purporting to exclude business owners from these protections. Accordingly, the NFIB Small Business Legal Center filed in this case to make clear that the legislature cannot take away a business’ constitutional rights through legislation. 

U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona

 

NFIB joined an amicus brief in Arizona federal court in support of Wyndham Worldwide’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission, alleging that the company engaged in “unfair” trade practices because it allegedly lacked “reasonable” data security measures to prevent hackers from breaching its data defenses.

 

NFIB’s brief argues that the FTC has a pattern of abusing its “unfairness” authority by routinely punishing businesses who are themselves hacking victims for allegedly failing to have “reasonable” data security measures in.

 

Industrial Comm’n of Arizona (ICA) v. Martin – Workers’ Compensation

NFIB has joined the fight against the state of Arizona’s unconstitutional taking of funds from the state’s workers’ compensation fund.  On January 31, 2009 Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed SB 1001, which sweeps over $4 million from the state’s Special Fund of the Industrial Commission, the fund established by Arizona’s workers’ compensation statute to ensure injured workers receive benefits mainly in cases where the employer is uninsured or the insurance carrier is insolvent. These millions of dollars were used to balance the state’s budget in violation of the state’s constitution and workers’ compensation statute that clearly state that money from the Special Fund may only be used to cover workers’.  

 

 

Arizona Supreme Court – petition for review

 

Petitioners have asked the court to overrule a Court of Appeals’ decision that sanctioned a violation of the TBOR by allowing the Department of Revenue change its mind on interpretation of taxation and then apply it retroactively to the detriment of taxpayers who were following different rules in the earlier time.