Opinion ID: 2612398
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Equal Protection vs. Special/Local Law Challenges

Text: Goodyear Petitioners for Deannexation claim that the municipalities' complaint is properly characterized as an equal protection, not a special/local law, challenge. They argue that the statute discriminates in favor of other cities and towns rather than discriminating against a select group. Thus, they assert, the municipalities' claim must be categorized as a violation of Arizona's equal protection clause. Goodyear Petitioners argue the municipalities' claim must therefore fail because municipalities are expressly excluded from the State's equal protection clause. See Ariz. Const. art. 2, § 13. Goodyear counters that the deannexation statute is a special/local law because it grants an immunity to many cities and towns by excluding them from the class subject to deannexation. Similarly situated municipalities, therefore, receive a benefit not available to members of the class affected by the statute. This court distinguishes between the equal protection and special/local law provisions of the Arizona Constitution: Although similar policies are involved, constitutional prohibitions against special legislation serve a purpose distinguishable from equal protection provisions. Equal protection is denied when the state unreasonably discriminates against a person or class. Prohibited special legislation, on the other hand, unreasonably and arbitrarily discriminates in favor of a person or class by granting them a special or exclusive immunity, privilege, or franchise. Arizona Downs v. Arizona Horsemen's Foundation, 130 Ariz. 550, 557, 637 P.2d 1053, 1060 (1981) (emphasis in original). A statute may be challenged under each provision individually. Id. (quoting Illinois Polygraph Soc'y v. Pellicano, 83 Ill.2d 130, 138, 46 Ill.Dec. 574, 579, 414 N.E.2d 458, 463 (1980)). The deannexation statute clearly is intended to remedy problems arising from the abusive annexation practices. However, because the statute is limited in application to 12 small cities and towns in Maricopa County, it not only discriminates against those small municipalities, but also discriminates in favor of larger municipalities in Maricopa County, as well as all cities and towns in other counties. On its factual basis alone, therefore, the statute could be attacked as both violative of equal protection and as unconstitutional special legislation because it denies a benefit to one class while conferring a benefit on another. Even if the statute could survive an equal protection challenge, as deannexation proponents claim, the statute may still be challenged under the special/local law prohibitions. We therefore clarify the standard of review in order to distinguish special/local law analysis from equal protection analysis.