The Executive Guidance Committee (EGC) of the Maricopa County Republican Committee unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday calling for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to “[i]mmediately commence an [i]nvestigation of the State Bar of Arizona [SBA].”
The resolution, which was enacted by nearly 100 members present, comes after Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN), Phoenix Metro chapter, also urged the DOJ to investigate the SBA due to its targeting of conservative, minority, and other attorneys.
The document focused on the SBA’s disbarment of former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, who “was the only Maricopa County Attorney who has ever fully enforced the state’s laws against illegal immigration, resulting in illegal immigrants leaving the state in droves while he and Sheriff Arpaio were in office.” It said “the State Bar of Arizona was weaponized for this purpose against Mr. Thomas and his deputies.” Thomas was elected to office in 2004 and served until April of 2010.
The EGC noted that “the disbarment of Mr. Thomas and the destruction of the legal careers of his deputies violated their civil rights, greatly damaged the rule of law in Arizona, and still shocks the conscience of all fair-minded people.” The MCRC issued a similar resolution in 2011 condemning the SBA’s disciplinary action against Thomas.
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