Arizona Together v. Brewer

Summary

The Supreme Court of Arizona held that Proposition 107, a proposed constitutional amendment concerning marriage and marriage-like legal statuses, satisfied Arizona's separate amendment rule under Article 21, Section 1. The court concluded that the measure's provisions were both topically related and sufficiently interrelated to constitute a single amendment. The court also rejected a strictly procedural interpretation of the separate amendment rule and abandoned the reasonable-voter analysis as an independent factor.

Holdings

1. Proposition 107 complied with Article 21, Section 1 because its provisions were sufficiently related to a common purpose or principle: preserving and protecting marriage through an exclusive definition and a prohibition on substantially similar legal statuses for unmarried persons.
2. Article 21, Section 1 imposes substantive limits on proposed constitutional amendments and requires judicial review of whether the provisions constitute separate amendments; it is not merely a procedural instruction concerning ballot preparation.
3. The court abandoned the reasonable-voter inquiry as an alternative factor in Arizona separate-amendment jurisprudence.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Proposition 107 complied with Article 21, Section 1 of the Arizona Constitution's separate-amendment rule.
2. Whether the separate-amendment rule imposes substantive limits requiring proposed constitutional-amendment provisions to share a common purpose or principle, rather than merely prescribing ballot-submission procedures.
3. Whether the court should continue to consider a reasonable-voter factor in determining whether proposed amendment provisions are sufficiently interrelated.

Disposition

affirmed