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House Engrossed
attorney general; nuisance action; defamation |
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State of Arizona House of Representatives Fifty-seventh Legislature Second Regular Session 2026
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HOUSE BILL 2169 |
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AN ACT
amending section 13-2917, Arizona Revised Statutes; relating to offenses against public order.
(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:
Section 1. Section 13-2917, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:
13-2917. Public nuisance; abatement; attorney general actions; liability for defamation; classification
A. It is a public nuisance, and is no less a nuisance because the extent of the annoyance or damage inflicted is unequal, for anything:
1. To be injurious to health, indecent, offensive to the senses or an obstruction to the free use of property that interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property by an entire community or neighborhood or by a considerable number of persons.
2. To unlawfully obstruct the free passage or use, in the customary manner, of any navigable lake, river, bay, stream, canal or basin, or any public park, square, street or highway.
B. It is a public nuisance for any person to sell, offer to sell, transfer, trade or disseminate any obscene item which is obscene as defined in section 13-3501, within two thousand feet, measured in a straight line, of the nearest boundary line of any of the following:
1. Any building used as a private or public elementary or high school.
2. Any public park.
3. Any residence district as defined in section 28-101.
C. The county attorney, the attorney general or the city attorney may bring an action in superior court to abate, enjoin and prevent the activity described in subsections A and B of this section.
D. If the attorney general brings an action to abate, enjoin and prevent a public nuisance and the court finds that there is no reasonable basis for the action, the attorney general is liable for defamation per se if the attorney general knew or should have known that the action lacked a sufficient legal or factual basis, and if the attorney general publicized the filing of the action, damages and actual malice are presumed.
D. E. Any person who knowingly maintains or commits a public nuisance or who knowingly fails or refuses to perform any legal duty relating to the removal of a public nuisance is guilty of a class 2 misdemeanor.