Legislators Aim To Terminate Commission Citing ‘Surveillance and Data Collection Practices’

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Photo by Yuri Samoilov/Creative Commons)

The Arizona Criminal Justice Commission is scrambling in response to proposed legislation, HB 2702, which would, if enacted, terminate the Commission on December 31st 2025.

“Government should work for the people—not against them,” tweeted one of the bill’s co-sponsor, Rep. Quang Nguyen. “HB2702 will cut red tape, eliminate waste, and prevent fraud & abuse. Taxpayers deserve accountability, efficiency, and results. Let’s make government work smarter. #HB2702 #GoodGovernance”

Proponents of the bill cite findings that the Commission has “lobbied, using taxpayer money, for surveillance and data collection practices on citizens that have not committed any crimes,” and “lobbied for the creation of a database targeting lawful concealed carry weapon permit holders.”

Further the legislation asserts that “the chairperson of the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission is responsible for the creation of the judiciary’s task force on countering disinformation, part of a nationwide censorship apparatus that spied on and suppressed the voices of the people of Arizona.”

The bill appears to refer to current AJCJ Chairman Dave Byers who co-created the Arizona Supreme Court’s “Task Force on Countering Disinformation,” as director of the Arizona Administrative Office of the Courts according to Slate.

Byers notably shared a presentation with the Arizona bar entitled, “From Russia With Love: Countering Disinformation and Attacks on America’s Institutions.”

The ACJC responded on Thursday to issues raised in the bill. It’s Executive Director, Andrew LeFevre, wrote a guest opinion piece for the Arizona Capitol Times, calling the legislator’s findings based on “factually inaccurate information and false assertions designed to misrepresent and cast in a negative light the work that the agency has done on behalf of the citizens of Arizona.”

“The claim that the Chairperson of ACJC was responsible for creating a judiciary task force to counter disinformation is misleading. The Courts Task Force on Disinformation was not an attempt to suppress free speech. The order establishing the task force explicitly emphasized the importance of maintaining free speech while addressing the growing threat of disinformation. The task force was created to respond to efforts by state actors, particularly Russia, to undermine the American justice system. ACJC had no role in this task force, and no work under ACJC was linked to it. Any assertion that ACJC engaged in censorship activities is entirely false and misrepresents the agency’s mission and responsibilities,” the ACJC advised lawmakers, challenging the bill’s claims again.

“HB2702 TERMINATES an agency chaired by the architect of the courts’ disinformation task force,” countered bill sponsor Rep. Alex Kolodin. “Their response is that my bill is based on … disinformation! Can’t make this stuff up!”

A conservative activist X.com account, AZ Pink Lady, questioned if Byer’s appointment by Governor Katie Hobbs to the ACJC was related to “his successful part in getting the Task force started? Which he admitted in the task force meeting minutes that it was “a first of its kind” & a template for other courts across the country.”

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3 Comments

  1. The only legitimate way to counteract “misinformation” is to question the sources and evidence and to rebut the conclusion. That’s not what gov agencies do, or should do. That is a function of media. Once upon a time, the legacy media did that, but have proven themselves to be unreliable. When gov gets involved, in anything, ultimately its only power comes from the barrel of a gun, and we don’t need that with respect to ‘misinformation’.

  2. Copernicus was cancelled by the Catholic Church “disinformation” board because he tried to say the world was round.

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