ARIZONA JUDGES MAKE WAR ON FREE SPEECH

You may think that here in America the courts will always protect the
First Amendment and your right to Free Political Speech.
You are wrong.
Courts are often antagonistic towards free speech especially when
the speakers attention, and the harsh light of public scrutiny, is directed on the misconduct of courts and judges themselves.
Then the battle becomes truly frightful.
Consider the experience of Tucson Activist Roy Warden.
On April 23, 2004 Pima County Superior Court Presiding Judge John
Leonardo declared war on the First Amendment when he ordered the
Director of Court Security, Chris Hoffman, to arrest Tucson activist Roy
Warden for handing out a newsletter, critical of court plea bargaining
policy, on the front steps of the Pima County Courthouse.
The first edition of Common Sense II exposed the no time sweetheart deal between Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall and disgraced TPD Officer Ken Walter who had been arrested on December
3, 2003 for using a police computer to solicit sexual favors from local
teenage girls, often showing up for a late night rendezvous driving a
TPD Black and White, with drugs pilfered from Walters drug arrests.
Barbara LaWall refused to prosecute Warden and on January 24, 2005
Warden, then represented by Ed Kahn, David Euchner and the ACLU,
filed suit in U.S. District Court, 4:05-cv-00020 alleging general constitutional violations. However, on March 28, 2005 Kahn, Euchner, and
the ACLU withdrew from the case on explicit instructions from Ruth
McGregor, Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, because Warden refused to stop writing articles critical of court policy.
Literally abandoned by counsel on the U.S. Courthouse steps, Warden
subsequently rolled up his sleeves, researched the F.R.Civ.P. and filed
the First Amended Complaint, naming new defendants Pima County

Judges Howard Fell and John Leonardo, and adding conspiracy as a

cause of action.
In 2008, after 3 years of wrangling, Director of Security Chris Hoffman
finally revealed that he did conspire with Judge Leonardo to use an irrelevant court internal regulation, Policy 902, prohibiting commercial
solicitations and court employees from posting commercial solicitations on Court bulletin boards as legal justification for arresting Warden, a member of the public and non- court employee, for handing our
political literature on the courthouse steps, but by then it was too late:
consequent to an illegal eviction by Rathbun Reality1, Warden was
now exhausted, homeless, impoverished, beaten down, struggling to
survive life on the streets and an avalanche of criminal proceedings in
Tucson Municipal Court consequent to his Burning the Mexican Flag in
Armory Park on April 10, 2006, and forced to abandon his suit against
Pima County Judges.
Round One to Arizona Judges.
Round Two began in 2008 when Judicial Watch revealed that Arizona
Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor had suggested that Arizona Judges should soften their tone regarding illegal immigration,
abandon use of the legal term illegal alien, and use new terminology
such as undocumented worker as suggested by Los Abogados, a radical Pro Raza group of lawyers which included Cari Gersheck, then
employed at the Supreme Court as McGregors spokesperson.
The Arizona Supreme Court?
Chief Justice Ruth McGregor?
Remember, this is the same Ruth McGregor who intimidated Wardens attorneys in 2005 and forced them to withdraw from Wardens
suit against Pima county Judges?
Warden wrote a flurry of stories exposing McGregors Pro-Raza bias,
emailed them to some 1,500 members of the Pima County Bar, called
1

On March 30 2012 a Pima County jury agreed with Warden, granting him a
$112,000.00 judgment fo damages arising out of that illegal eviction.

for McGregors resignation on the front steps of the Arizona Supreme

Court, contacted2 each and every member of the Arizona Legislature
to voice his concern, then had the audacity to rub their noses in it and
publically claim success when McGregor was forced to resign three
months later.
Round two to Warden.
On March 16, 2009, three weeks subsequent to Warden taking out
candidacy forms required for an intended run for Tucson City Council,
Tucson Municipal Court Judge Eisenberg issued a breathtaking and
totally Unconstitutional Order of Prior Restraint prohibiting Warden
from speaking within 1000 feet of any political event for three years.
Naturally Warden appealed the order, and was denied in Superior
Court. So Warden filed a Special Action in Division Two, which refused
to even hear the matter; Warden filed again in the Arizona Supreme
Court which again refused to even hear3 the matter.
Thus, by the simple process of turning a blind eye to what was clearly
an unlawful order, Arizona Courts succeeded in stripping away Wardens First Amendment rights for three years.
Round three to Arizona Judges.
Round four is well underway, in Whitaker v Warden, C20161109, in
which the Court is considering sanctioning Warden for offering harsh
criticism of republicans and militiamen on a Facebook Political Blog.
The final hearing will begin at 1:30 pm on May 25, 2016 in Pima County
Superior Court, room 808, Judge Sara Simmons presiding.
So, WHO do you think protects the public right to speech when the
subject matter of that speech are judges and the judicial system?
2

Warden was assisted by Lee Ewing, the president of Arizonans for Immigration
Control.

3 ARS 22-375 limits appellate rights to Superior

Court for all convictions originating

in Justice or Municipal Court. From there upwards one must proceed by Special
Action, for which the Appellate Courts may deny jurisdiction and refuse to even
hear the matter.

Sometimes its merely a single individual willing to stand up, educate

himself, and take shots from the establishment for protecting his
and everyones rights.
You SAY you care about the First Amendment.
Will YOU be there to watch on May 25, 2016?
Who will win Round Four, Warden or the Judges?

May 2016 Roy Warden

roywarden@hotmail.com