By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services/East Valley Tribune
The Arizona Court of Appeals late Wednesday trimmed the ability of state lawmakers to create special laws that are clearly designed to affect only one county or city.
In a unanimous decision, the judges threw out a 2010 law that required counties of more than 3 million to add two “at large” members to their community college governing boards. That clearly applied solely to Maricopa County.
Judge Michael Brown, writing for the court, said the fact that no other county could conceivably reach that level for perhaps a century shows the measure is special legislation specifically precluded by the Arizona Constitution.
