Arizona has joined a 16-state coalition pushing back against a Biden Administration initiative that would require companies to make policy statements unrelated to financial performance to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Arizona joins the West Virginia-led fight against what is seen as an attack on the freedom of speech.
The attorneys general of Alaska, Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming join in arguing that the initiative would require companies to make policy statements not related to financial performance to serves a political agenda.
In comments filed this week to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, the attorneys general expressed concerns that the proposed climate change disclosures are unnecessary from a market protection standpoint, writing that “the Commission has an important and difficult mandate with respect to safeguarding public trading, but it is hard to see how it can legally, constitutionally, and reasonably assume a leading role when it comes to climate change.”
The attorneys general contend that to pass constitutional muster, “speech regulation must advance a constitutionally sufficient government interest, must be adequately related to advancing that end and may be required to use the least restrictive means,” the comments read.
On Monday, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich advised U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland that the Biden administration’s Department of Justice had no right to interfere with the audit of the Maricopa County 2020 General Election.
Brnovich accused Garland of giving in to the “hysterical” audit opposition.
“My office is not amused by the DOJ’s posturing and will not tolerate any effort to undermine or interfere with our State Senate’s audit to reassure Arizonans of the accuracy of our elections,” wrote Brnovich to Garland.
“My office looks for ways to work alongside the federal government to uphold our laws within the constraints of the 10th Amendment and the election provisions in Articles I and II.” Brnovich concluded, “As I have demonstrated several times, however, Arizona will not sit back and let the Biden administration abuse its authority, refused to uphold laws, or attempt to commandeer our state’s sovereignty.”
Garland has attacked the audit ordered by the Arizona State Senate. “Many of the justifications proffered in support of these post-election audits and restrictions on voting have relied on assertions of material vote fraud in the 2020 election that have been refuted by law enforcement and intelligence agencies,” Garland said last week.
Arizona has received the prestigious “Gold Shovel” award from Area Development Magazine, a leading site selection publication, for the state’s “success in terms of new job creation and company capital investment” in 2020.
In addition, TSMC’s announced $12 billion investment to build a semiconductor fabrication facility in Phoenix was named one of six “Manufacturing Projects of the Year.” Arizona saw economic development wins across the state in 2020, even against the context of a global pandemic. In addition to TSMC, the 2020 projects include:
• Global Energy Solutions, a producer of lithium-battery supply chain materials that announced a new facility in Eloy, resulting in 176 projected new jobs and $101 million in capital investment;
• Commercial Metals Company, which is investing more than $300 million to build a state-of-the-art steel producing facility in Mesa. The facility’s advanced technology will make it one of the most efficient and environmentally-friendly in the world, while employing more than 180 people;
• PMG Companies, which is opening an advanced manufacturing plant in Lake Havasu, resulting in more than 260 jobs and a $20 million investment;
• Ball Corporation (Red Bull), which is building a manufacturing facility in Glendale leading to the creation of 145 jobs and more than $235 million in investment;
• And Zoom Communications, which will establish a technology hub in Phoenix with 250 employees and a $11 million investment.
A consumer fraud lawsuit filed last year by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office (AGO) against Google was the subject of an important court ruling last week, when a Maricopa County judge appointed to review some of the global tech giant’s internal documents issued an advisory ruling in support of sealing some records.
The June 7 advisory ruling was made by Judge Sally Schneider, who was appointed to serve as a Special Master to review various documents which Google wants sealed or redacted. This keeps Judge Timothy Thomason, who will preside over the jury trial on the AGO’s complaint, from coming into contact with documents which may not be admissible in the case.
Attorneys for the parties will be back in Maricopa County Superior Court on June 22 for a status conference with Thomason at which time he is expected to accept Schneider’s advisory ruling. No trial date has been set yet in the case, but Thomason has already scheduled two pretrial conferences for later this year.
The lawsuit authorized by Attorney General Mark Brnovich in May 2020 alleges Google violated Arizona’s Consumer Fraud Act by misleading users of its apps about the company’s data collection and location tracking policies.
National attention -and that of Brnovich- was first drawn to the company’s tracking policies after the Associated Press published an article about the issue in 2018. Public records show more than 250 exhibits were shared between Google and the AGO within six months of the lawsuit being filed.
Since then, several of the documents have been released to the public, providing a better understanding of the steps Google took to ensure it could readily track its customers, even though some employees pointed out concerns with such policies. Other documents have been redacted or sealed based on Schneider’s recommendation.
It is unclear what records or topics were involved in Google’s most recent motion to seal -listed as number 4- but Schneider is advising Thomason to keep something under seal. A redacted version of whatever Schneider believes should not be sealed will not be available until Thomason makes a formal ruling.
Brnovich alleges Google has violated the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act by leading users to believe they can opt-out of location tracking. He contends the company “exploits other avenues to invade personal privacy…It’s nearly impossible to stop Google from tracking your movements without your knowledge or consent,” he said.
The AGO also contends Google is continuing to track and collect location information via a user’s WiFi connectivity.
“Google makes it so a user cannot opt out of this form of location tracking unless the user actually completely disables the WiFi functionality on his or her device…meaning the device cannot connect to the internet through WiFi,” the lawsuit now states. It also alleges location data can be obtained by Google even if a user’s Android phone is shut off.
According to court records, over 80% of Google’s 2019 revenues—$135 billion out of $161 billion total—came from advertising enabled by the company’s collection of detailed information about its users, including their physical locations. Thomason ordered Google last month to continue its “reasonable, good faith investigation into what documents or materials it has with respect to profits from the Arizona user location data.”
Google has issued few public statements in response to the lawsuit. The most recent noted the company is looking forward to setting the record straight about its activities.
“The Attorney General has gone out of his way to mischaracterize our services,” according to the statement. “We have always built privacy features into our products and provided robust controls for location data.”
Some of the Google documents obtained by the AGO played a big role in legal action taken against the company in Australia.
Officials with the Australia Competition and Consumer Commission are seeking an unspecified amount of civil penalties against Google after a judge ruled earlier this year that the company led users who were setting up new Android devices to believe only the “location history” setting allowed location information to be tracked.
The Australian judge determined Google knew it could still collect a user’s location data without their knowledge via a default setting under “web & app activity,” even if the location history setting was turned off.
Sen. Mark Kelly is accused of continuing to dodge the question about his support for eliminating the legislative filibuster. Kelly was able to dodge the filibuster question throughout the entire 2020 campaign and recently told the Arizona Republic he was “studying” it.
According to a new report from CNN, “Kelly, an Arizona Democrat up for reelection next year, indicated he hasn’t decided if he backs lowering the 60-vote requirement or if his position is in line with Sinema’s opposition to changing the rules.
While Kelly said Tuesday he is “generally a believer in change,” the freshman Democrat said, “I’ll evaluate any change to our rules, regardless of what they are, based on what’s in the best interest of Arizona, and the best interest of our country.”
Critics say that if the senator wants to please his constituents, he might want to look to a recent Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) poll to shape his decision. The FGA poll found the majority of Arizona voters support the legislative filibuster because they believe it ensures bipartisanship.
Sen. Sinema on the other hand has been not shy about her opposition to killing the filibuster. Speaking to reporters alongside GOP Sen. John Cornyn in Arizona last week, Sinema indicated that she would not shift from her opposition to changing the Senate’s rules. Sinema argues that it “protects the democracy of our nation rather than allowing our country to ricochet wildly every two to four years.”
