Opinion ID: 2612398
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Legitimacy of Classification

Text: A statute conferring rights and privileges or imposing restrictions on persons, places or things as a class is a general law, while a statute relating to particular persons, places or things of a class is a special or local law. Arizona Downs, 130 Ariz. at 557, 637 P.2d at 1060. The constitutional prohibition against special or local laws when a general law could apply does not prohibit classification entirely. To be general, a law need not operate on every person, place, or thing within the state; however, it must apply uniformly to all cases and to all members within the circumstances provided for by the law. Arizona Downs, 130 Ariz. at 558, 637 P.2d at 1061. In other words, it must, as Division One noted, encompass a legitimate classification by population, geography, or time limitations. Petitioners for Deannexation, 160 Ariz. at 472, 773 P.2d at 1031. A law may be general and still apply to only one entity, if that entity is the only member of a legitimate class. See generally 2 E. McQuillan, supra, § 4.44, at 109 ([A] general law may operate only in a particular county and only affect a small group of persons at the time of its enactment.... [T]he statute must apply equally to all in a similar situation coming within its scope.).