Legislative Privilege in Arizona

If an Arizona citizen claims a sincerely held religious belief, they may be exempt from vaccine mandates. Questions abound about what makes a religious belief “sincerely held”. From a legal standpoint, if an employee claims a religious exemption they should be granted the exemption because beliefs, by definition, are subjective and can not be proved.

Two lawsuits have been brought against the Arizona Senate and private company “Cyber Ninjas”.  The lawsuits demand that tens of thousands of texts, emails and other documents regarding the validity of the 2020 election should be released for review. The Senate has thus far refused, claiming they have legislative privilege. Legislative privilege covers deliberative, communicative functions within the Senate. It doesn’t look like the legislative privilege argument will hold up, though, as counting ballots is not a normal (deliberative) function of the Senate. Ultimately, the Arizona Supreme Court may end up reviewing the boundaries of what legislative privilege is in the state of Arizona and there is a good chance that the texts/emails/documents will be made public records.