Conspiracy theorists are heating up social media after the Arizona Supreme Court, on Friday, released an explanation of its 5-2 ruling on Proposition 207. The Court has announced its ruling in August without explanation in order to meet deadlines associated with printing the 2018 General Election ballots.
At the time the Court announced its decision in August, it advised that the details of the vote and the rationales behind it would be forthcoming. On Friday, the Court released the detailed 23 page decision.
Although the court’s ruling was highly predictable, the pro-Proposition 207 tin-foil-hat-wearing crowd claimed the 5-2 vote was proof of a conspiracy between some of the justices and Governor Doug Ducey. The conspiracy theory is based on a message from Governor’s Office in August that the justices ruled against Proposition 207 in a 5-2 vote.
Conspiracy theorists speculate that the only way the Governor’s Office could know that the vote would be 5-2, is if the case was rigged.
Nearly 300,000 signed petitions to get Proposition 207 on the ballot. Proposition 207 would have raised taxes to fund education.
In August, the court rejected Proposition 207 because the language on the ballot petitions was confusing.