The Arizona Supreme Court chief justice has ordered emergency rule changes keeping information secret about those being considered for the five-member Independent Redistricting Commission, as the application process moves online amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The commission is designated to redraw the state’s congressional and legislative boundaries.
Chief Justice Robert Brutinel ordered Friday that written information about an applicant that someone wants to be confidential will be kept secret in its entirety, the Arizona Republic reported.
The changes do not reduce the records subject to public inspection, Brutinel said. But others have raised concerns that information about applicants will now be off limits.
Anyone wishing to comment on an applicant can now request to do so confidentially, said David Bodney, an attorney for Ballard Spahr who represents The Arizona Republic.
“The public will never know who they are and what they said,” Bodney said.
The order also declares secrecy rights for the appellate panel, whose notes can be considered confidential if they are “generated for personal use” and whose emails between members can be considered confidential if deemed “procedural.”
The Commission on Appellate Court Appointments, which Brutinel heads, submitted the changes April 2. The changes were approved the following day by Brutinel.
Emergency power was used because such changes are normally permitted once a year and the commission’s application process would have already been underway before the rule could be changed again, Brutinel said.
The Appellate Court Appointments Commission seemed to prefer opening the application period in July and August, screen applicants in September and interview them by October.
The order comes ahead of the state’s third round of redistricting under the commission structure voters approved in 2000. The process is intended to reduce the partisan politics that are involved in redrawing district lines.
Public comment is scheduled until July 1, when the changes could become permanent.
Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
