Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:
Section 1. Title 12, chapter 1, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding article 5, to read:
ARTICLE 5. JUDICIAL DETERMINATIONS
START_STATUTE12-181. Basis for judicial determinations; applicability;
definitions
A. A court shall not use, implement, refer to or
incorporate A tenet of any body of religious sectarian law into any decision,
finding or opinion as controlling or influential authority.
B. A court
shall not use, implement, refer to or incorporate Any Case law or statute from
another country or a foreign body or jurisdiction that is outside of the United
States and its territories in any decision, finding or opinion as either:
1. Controlling
or influential authority.
2. Precedent
or the foundation for any legal theory.
C. Any
decision or ratification of a private agreement that is determined, on the
merits, by a judge in this state who relies on any body of religious sectarian
law or foreign law is void, is appealable error and is grounds for impeachment
and removal from office.
D. This
section applies to a federal court sitting in diversity jurisdiction.
E. This
section does not apply to:
1. A statute
or any case law developed in the United States and its territories that is
based on Anglo-American legal tradition and principles on which the United
States was founded.
2. A statute
or any case law or legal principle that was inherited from Great Britain before
the effective date of this article.
3. The
recognition of a traditional marriage between a man and a woman as officiated
by the clergy or a secular official of the matrimonial couple's choice.
F. For the purposes of this section:
1. "Foreign Body" includes the United
Nations and any agency thereunder, the European Union and any agency thereunder,
an international judiciary, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the World Bank and the Socialist
International.
2. "Foreign Law" means any statute or
body of case law developed in a country, jurisdiction or Foreign Body outside
of the United States, whether or not the United States is a member of that
body, unless properly ratified as a Treaty pursuant to the United States
Constitution.
3. "Religious Sectarian Law" means any
statute, tenet or body of law evolving within and binding a specific religious
sect or tribe. Religious sectarian law includes Sharia Law, Canon Law, Halacha
and Karma but does not include any law of the United States or the individual
states based on Anglo‑American legal tradition and principles on which
the United States was founded. END_STATUTE
Sec. 2. Legislative findings
The legislature finds that:
1. The tenth amendment to the United States
Constitution guarantees and reserves to the states or their people all powers
not specifically granted to the federal government elsewhere in the
constitution as they were publicly understood at the time the amendment was
ratified on December 15, 1791, subject only to modification by duly ratified
subsequent amendments to the United States Constitution. The guaranty of those
powers is a matter of compact between the state and people of Arizona and the
United States as of the time Arizona was admitted to statehood on February 14,
1912.
2. As a matter of compact between the state and
people of Arizona and the United States as of the time Arizona was admitted to
statehood on February 14, 1912, the tenth amendment to the United States
Constitution guarantees to the state and people of Arizona that other than the
enumerated powers expressly granted to the United States under article I,
section 8 of the United States Constitution, Congress and the federal
government will not exercise any purported control over or commandeer the
courts of the state of Arizona.
3. At the time the United States Constitution was
ratified on June 21, 1788, the sole and sovereign power to regulate the state
courts rested in the state legislature and has always been a compelling state
concern and central to state sovereignty. Accordingly, the foregoing
public meaning and understanding of article I, section 8, the establishment
clause of the first amendment and the tenth amendment of the United States
Constitution are matters of compact between the state and people of Arizona and
the United States as of the time Arizona was admitted to statehood on February
14, 1912.
4. At the time the United States Constitution was
ratified on June 21, 1788, the commerce clause was not meant or understood to
authorize Congress or the federal judiciary to regulate the state courts in the
matter of state substantive law or state judicial procedure. The meaning and
understanding of article I, section 8, the establishment clause of the first
amendment and the tenth amendment of the United States Constitution, as they
pertain to the validity of religious sectarian or foreign law as being
controlling or influential precedent, have never been modified by any duly
ratified amendment to the United States Constitution. Accordingly, the
foregoing public meaning and understanding of article I, section 8 and the
tenth amendment of the United States Constitution are matters of compact
between the state and people of Arizona and the United States as of the time
Arizona was admitted to statehood on February 14, 1912.
5. At the time the United States Constitution was
ratified on June 21, 1788, the commerce clause was not meant or understood to
authorize Congress or the federal judiciary to establish religious sectarian or
foreign statute or case law as controlling or influential
precedent. The meaning and understanding of article I, section 8,
the establishment clause of the first amendment and the tenth amendment of the
United States Constitution, as they pertain to controlling or influential legal
authority, have never been modified by any duly ratified amendment to the
United States Constitution. Accordingly, the foregoing public meaning and
understanding of article I, section 8, the establishment clause of the first
amendment and the tenth amendment of the United States Constitution are matters
of compact between the state and people of Arizona and the United States as of
the time Arizona was admitted to statehood on February 14, 1912.
6. The Congress and the federal government are
denied the power to establish a sectarian religion by recognizing or ratifying
judicial decisions based on religious sectarian law.
7. The Congress and the federal government are
denied the power to bind the states under foreign statute or case law other
than those provisions duly ratified by the Congress as a treaty, so long as the
treaty does not violate the United States Constitution.
8. The Congress has no authority to preempt state
regulation of state courts.
9. Under the tenth amendment of the United States
Constitution, the people and state of Arizona retain their exclusive power to
regulate the state courts of Arizona subject only to the fourteenth amendment's
guarantee that the people and state of Arizona shall exercise such sovereign
power in accordance with each citizen's lawful privileges or immunities, and in
compliance with the requirements of due process and equal protection of the
law.
10. The ninth amendment of the United States
Constitution secures and reserves to the people of Arizona as against the
federal government their natural rights to life, liberty and property as
entailed by the traditional Anglo-American conception of ordered liberty and as
secured by state law, including their rights as they were understood and
secured by the law at the time the amendment was ratified on December 15, 1791,
as well as their rights as they were understood and secured by the law in the
state of Arizona at the time the Arizona Constitution was adopted on December
9, 1910. The guarantee of those rights is a matter of compact between the
state and people of Arizona and the United States as of the time Arizona was
admitted to statehood on February 14, 1912.
Sec. 3. Construction and severability
A. Any
court that construes this act must adopt a construction of each provision that:
1. Confines
the power of Congress and the federal judiciary to impose religious sectarian
law and foreign law to the least expansive interpretation permitted under
binding precedent.
2. Secures
the authority of the state of Arizona to exclusively regulate its courts under
the tenth amendment of the United States Constitution to the greatest extent
permitted under binding precedent.
3. Protects the constitutional rights of
Arizonans under article I, section 8 of the United States Constitution, as well
as the first, ninth and tenth amendments to the United States Constitution to
regulate the state's judiciary permitted under binding precedent.
B. If
a provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is
held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications
of the act that can be given effect without the invalid provision or
application, and to this end the provisions of this act are severable.
Sec. 4. Short title
This act may be cited as the "Arizona Foreign Decisions
Act".
