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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Seventh Legislature, Second Regular Session
judicial determinations; religious sectarian laws
Purpose
Prohibits a court from using, implementing, referring to or incorporating religious sectarian law as controlling or influential authority in judicial decisions, findings or opinions.
Background
Foreign law is any law, rule, legal code or legal system other than the U.S. Constitution, laws and ratified treaties of the United States and U.S. territories or the Arizona Constitution and state law. A court, arbitrator, administrative agency or other adjudicative, mediation or enforcement authority may not enforce a foreign law if doing so would violate a right guaranteed by the U.S. or Arizona Constitution or conflict with state or federal law. The foreign law definition and prohibition apply only when the application of foreign law results in a violation of a person's constitutional rights or a conflict with state law and does not apply to corporations, partnerships or other forms of business association (A.R.S. §§ 12-3101 and 12-3102).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Prohibits a court from using, implementing, referring to or incorporating religious sectarian law as controlling or influential authority in judicial decisions, findings or opinions.
3. Applies the prohibition on judicial reliance on religious sectarian law to a federal court sitting in diversity jurisdiction.
4. Specifies that requirements relating to religious sectarian law do not apply to:
a) a statute or 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;
b) a statute or case law or legal principle that was inherited from Great Britain before the general effective date; and
c) the recognition of a traditional marriage between a man and a woman as officiated by the clergy or secular official of the matrimonial couple's choice.
5. Defines religious sectarian law as any statute, tenet or body of law evolving within and binding a specific religious sect or tribe, including 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.
6. Requires a court, when construing requirements and limitations related to religious sectarian law, to adopt a construction that:
a) confines the powers of the U.S. Congress and the federal judiciary to impose religious sectarian law to the least expansive interpretation permitted under binding precedent;
b) secures the state's authority to regulate its courts under the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to the greatest extent permitted under binding precedent; and
c) protects the constitutional rights of Arizonans under Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the First, Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution to regulate Arizona's judiciary permitted under binding precedent.
7. Contains a severability clause.
8. Makes technical and conforming changes.
9. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Prepared by Senate Research
February 6, 2026
ZD/MY/ci