Korwin v. Cotton

323 P.3d 1200, 234 Ariz. 549, 2014 WL 1848458, 2014 Ariz. App. LEXIS 87
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedMay 8, 2014
DocketNo. 1 CA-CV 12-0878
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 323 P.3d 1200 (Korwin v. Cotton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Korwin v. Cotton, 323 P.3d 1200, 234 Ariz. 549, 2014 WL 1848458, 2014 Ariz. App. LEXIS 87 (Ark. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION

JONES, Judge.

¶ 1 Alan Korwin and TrainMeAZ, L.L.C., an Arizona company Korwin owns and manages (collectively, “Appellant”), appeal the superior court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the City of Phoenix and Debbie Cotton, the City’s Public Transit Director (collectively, “City”), upholding the constitutionality of city regulations pertaining to advertising on its bus system. Because the City unconstitutionally applied its Transit Advertising Standards to Appellant’s advertisement, we reverse the judgment in favor of the City and direct the superior court to enter summary judgment in favor of Appellant.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2 The City operates a proprietary bus system through its Public Transit Department. The bus system includes hundreds of buses and benches as well as thousands of bus shelters. The City sells advertising space within and upon its buses as well as upon its benches and bus shelters but, by regulation, only accepts advertisements that propose a commercial transaction. The City sells the advertising space to generate revenue, and competes with other forms of public and nonpublic transportation for those revenues.

¶ 3 Appellant is an Arizona for-profit company dealing in marksmanship training, gun safety classes, and ancillary supplies and books. Appellant maintains a website and serves as an umbrella organization for the firearms industry in Arizona. In addition, Appellant receives financial support from commercial entities that serve as eontributing sponsors. In October 2010, Appellant sought to advertise its website on the City’s bus shelters.

¶ 4 Appellant entered into an agreement with a third party that sold advertising space for the City’s bus shelters to post 6' X 4' advertisements on fifty of the City’s bus shelters. The vendor1 agreed to post the advertisement without having previously submitted Appellant’s advertisement to the City for review. Appellant’s advertisement contained a drawing of a large red heart, bordered by the following paragraphs, displayed in small print:

In Arizona, marksmanship matters. “The Train-Me State” knows that a nation, trained to arms, is an American linchpin of freedom, and is respected in Arizona like nowhere else. The Arizona legislature has enacted vibrant protection of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. We in Arizona seem destined to set models for the nation — in this ease, a shining example of gun rights for all free peoples of the earth.
The Grand Canyon State has Constitutional Carry. This frees any law-abiding adult here — not just residents — to discreetly enjoy the right to bear arms envisioned in the Constitution. WE [sic] have a super-strong Castle Doctrine, coupled with [a] robust burden of proof, a defensive-display statute, statewide preemption law restricting local fiefdoms from gun-rights abuse, and a specious-lawsuit ban — a true milestone — protecting honest people from false charges by criminals and their kind. We even have a High School Marksmanship law on the books for one credit towards a diploma; now if we can just move the obstructionists out of the way. Our Arizona Firearms Freedom Act joins a growing nationwide movement to repel federal incursion on states’ rights, and end intolerable abuse of the interstate Commerce Clause. TrainMeAZ is a non-partisan, joint educational effort of the firearms community.
[553]*553The TrainMeAZ Campaign is designed to teach and bring gun safety and knowledge to every Arizonan. In this state, we take it for granted that you know how to shoot, know how to handle guns safely, how to use guns for self defense and all legal purposes, and that you know and respect our laws. Criminals with guns receive harsh punishment, so be it. Citizens with guns earn respect, and help keep Arizona a safe and wonderful place to live. Robert Heinlein correctly noted that an armed society is a polite society, and in Arizona this is truth personified and exercised. Come to an “Open Carry Banquet,” and see! Join the Arizona buy-eott. See how we do it at azcdl.org and asrpa.com and for our sisters in arms, 2asisters.org. Go to TrainMeAZ.com, download this statement, learn how you can participate and improve your skills.
This is why the TrainMeAZ Campaign exists. Acting as one, the state rises up to encourage and enable gun-safety training, fun shoots, special training days at the range, a coordinating point for the state’s thousand-plus certified trainers — with a web-interactive and printed maps for the people. Soak up family days where the shooting sports are honored and enjoyed, with that freedom smell of gunpowder and a good hot dog. Arizona is an American protectorate of the culture of marksmanship, where the decent, honorable and lawful pursuit of the shooting sports, and the precious right to keep and bear arms is honored and enjoyed. How do you think so many trainers and shooting schools thrive here? Should your state honor our rights this way?
Visit Arizona, and breathe free ah’. Come experience “The Litmus Test of Freedom ” the right you have as an honest adult to enjoy your right to arms.
Use TrainMeAZ.com website to find training opportunities, shooting ranges, and classes for any level of skill — from your first-time shooting experience (a thrill you will always remember, just like the rest of us do), to the kind of tactical training the world’s elite special forces get — an experience few of us get to experience. In Arizona, marksmanship matters. Learn to shoot straight. Teach your children well.
Join us, as a nation trained to arms, confident in our exercise of the Second Amendment right of the people to keep and bear arms, which shall not be infringed. Exercising liberty’s teeth has a positive impact on the political environment.
TrainMeAZ is sponsored by:
Arizona Citizens Defense League • Arizona State Rifle and Pistol Association • Caswells Crossroads of the West Gun Shows • Front Sight • GalleryofGuns.com • GunLaws.com • Gunsite Second Amendment Sisters • Wide World of Maps

¶ 5 Once the advertisement came to the attention of the City, and after consulting legal counsel, the City determined it did not comply with the City’s 2009 Standards as it contained noncommercial elements and failed to “propose a commercial transaction.” The City then removed Appellant’s advertisements from the bus shelters.

¶ 6 Appellant objected and the parties attempted to settle their dispute to the point of the City preparing and proposing a replacement advertisement. Ultimately, however, Appellant and the City were unable to reach agreement. As a result, in May 2011, Appellant sued the City, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article II, Section 6 of the Arizona Constitution. Appellant also raised due process and equal protection claims pursuant to the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article II, Sections 4 and 13 of the Arizona Constitution.

¶ 7 Although the original complaint challenged only the 2009 standards, which were in effect at the time Appellant’s advertisement was rejected, Appellant later amended its complaint to allege that the transit advertising standards the City adopted in March 2011 (“2011 Standards”) were also unconstitutionally vague and would allow for arbitrary enforcement.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
323 P.3d 1200, 234 Ariz. 549, 2014 WL 1848458, 2014 Ariz. App. LEXIS 87, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/korwin-v-cotton-arizctapp-2014.