Farnsworth remains silent on killing popular court bills

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Republican Rep. Eddie Farnsworth single-handedly ended much of the Arizona Supreme Court’s legislative efforts at giving poor people a break in the justice system.

And Farnsworth, who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is keeping his motives for blocking the bills to himself.

Even the sponsor of the bills, Sen. Sonny Borrelli, R-Lake Havasu City, is left to speculate.

He said holding the bills was Farnsworth’s prerogative.

“He’s a perfectionist,” Borrelli said of the committee chair. “There might be one thing in there that gets in his craw that he doesn’t like… I don’t like to second-guess him.”

Some of the failed measures may have been addressed elsewhere, but others might be heading back to the drawing board. Borrelli said he wasn’t upset about Farnsworth’s decision, even though his bills received nearly unanimous support in the Senate and majority support among voters surveyed by the Morrison Institute for Public Policy.

The bills stemmed from an Arizona Supreme Court task force that issued dozens of recommendations to improve the justice system last summer.

The Task Force on Fair Justice for All sought to prevent a system that unfairly penalized the poor.

Read more at AZ Capitol Times

Corrie O'Connor