THE CALIFORNIA LEGAL UPDATE
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LU Ref# CAI00033
April 9, 2023
Author Ref. No: Vol. 27 No. 4
LU Ref# CAI00033
April 9, 2023
Author Ref. No:   Vol. 27 No. 4
CONSOLIDATED ISSUE

Robert Phillips
Deputy District Attorney (Retired)

THIS EDITION’S WORDS OF WISDOM:
When you’re dead, you don’t know you’re dead. The pain is only felt by others. The same thing happens when you’re stupid
CASES INDEX
CASE BRIEF
A Statute That Purports to Make Illegal the Videotaping of Police in Public Violates the 1st Amendment
COURT CASE REFERENCE: Arizona Broadcaster’s Association v. Brnovich (U.S. Dist. AZ. Sep. 9, 2022) __ F.Supp.3rd __ [2022 U.S.Dist. LEXIS 163140]
LEGAL UPDATES REFERENCE NO. CAC00096
RULES
A private person videotaping law enforcement officers in public, while the officers are in the performance of their duties, is a First Amendment right.  As such, a state statute attempting to criminalize the act of videotaping an officer while acting in the performance of his or her duties is unconstitutional.
FACTS
The Arizona Legislature enacted a new statute via HB (“House Bill?”) 2319, codified at Arizona Revised Statutes (i.e., “A.R.S.”) § 13-3732, which made it a class 3 misdemeanor for “a person to knowingly make a video recording of law enforcement activity if the person making the video recording is within eight feet” of the activity and has been directed to stop recording by law enforcement.  Scheduled to take effect on September 22, 2022, plaintiffs sued (under 42 U.S.C. § 1983) defendant Mark Brnovich in federal court in his capacity as the Arizona Attorney General, seeking a preliminary injunction preventing the enforcement of this new criminal statute.  The plaintiffs argued that the new statute infringed on their First (freedom of speech) and Fourteenth (due process) Amendment rights   AG Brnovich made it easy by rolling over in this lawsuit, filing a “Notice of Non-Opposition” in response.