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Arizona’s ANTI - FAMILY Representative Hershberger retaliates against constituent by filing a specious complaint about her First Amendment and Petitioning activities. Shame on you, Congressman. We suggest sending him back to civics class to learn about freedom of speech and the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. This page contains Ms. Scoin’s response and more on this story.
     Does the [dis]Honorable Congressman have a ve$ted intere$t in the status quo of Arizona CP$? Ms. Scoins has been instructed to request his disclosures which we will publish here.
     Dear Congressman Hershberger. . .if you can’t stand the constituent heat, get out of the People’s kitchen!
     The congressman’s complaint was an administrative act. . .not legislative (for the purposes of immunity from liability- hint, hint). We think a public apology from the floor of the House of Representatives is in order, Congressman.

BACKGROUND
Robin Scoins, is a citizen engaged in public participation on an issue of significant societal importance, attempting to influence the outcome on that issue. Her efforts are completely consistent with our customs, our traditions and our rights for grassroots citizen advocacy. The kind of public participation in which Ms. Scoins is engaging is extremely protected activity. Any acts that would tend to ‘chill’ this kind of participation are subject to the strictest scrutiny by the courts. Given the Congressman’s record with regard to Ms. Scoin’s public participation, he may have opened himself up to some nasty personal civil liability for this vicious act of retaliation against her First Amendment protected activities. Ms. Scoins is in the Ninth Circuit, as is Mr. Rayford in Hawaii, who won his lawsuit against CPS for the exact same kind of retaliation. We encourage Ms. Scoins to take this information to her attorneys and commence a civil rights legal action against the Congressman. We also encourage the Arizona Assembly to publicly sanction Congressman Herger for this cheap shot attempt to rid himself of credible opposition to his anti-family agenda. Finally, we encourage the constituents in this district to recall him and replace him with someone who will listen to People, whom he represents.

INCLUDED is another response written by Richard Wexler, “:. . . now that Rep. Hershberger has revealed himself for the bully his is, should he get his “gotcha  moment” and succeed in forcing Robin Scoins to go through a lot of paperwork and some expense, he can redeem himself by lending Ms. Scoins a staffer to fill out the forms and paying the fees for her.” Hear, hear!!

Letters in response to complaint filed by with Arizona Secretary of State, Arizona Attorney General, and Maricopa District Attorney against Robin Scoins.

March 11, 2007

Secretary of State
State of Arizona
1700 W. Washington Street, 7^th Floor
Phoenix, AZ 85007-2888

ATTN: Mr. Joseph Kanefield

Dear Mr. Kanefield,I received your letter dated March 8, 2007 on March 10, 2007. I have read the complaint filed by Representative Hershberger as well as the Lobbyist handbook you sent with your letter. I appreciate the opportunity to respond.

I am not a lobbyist. I am not paid by AZFRAI to lobby nor do I receive compensation by anyone to speak in support of or against any legislative bill.  AZFRAI is a grassroots organization.  AZFRAI is not a corporation.  AZFRAI does not retain, engage in the use of, employ, pay or compensate anyone to lobby on its behalf.

Neither AZFRAI nor myself have made any expenditure to a member of the legislature including expenditures for food or beverages.

I have on several occasions, including in the Human Services Committee in which Representative Hershberger was present, disclosed information about myself specifically that I am a single parent, a citizen and resident of Arizona and a volunteer advocate. 

I have exercised my fundamental rights protected by the Constitution and 1^st Amendment.  I have also exercised my right to participate in government processes and freedom of the press. 

At no time have I ever presented myself as a lobbyist, and in fact stated in public hearings, that I am NOT a lobbyist and I am not paid by anyone to speak in support of or in opposition of any bill. I have not been paid to provide testimony at the request of a legislator as a citizen expert on CPS issues.  I am a mother, who volunteers time to help others exercising my right to participate in government processes.

It is my belief based upon my understanding of the law and information in the lobbyist handbook you sent to me that I have engaged in activities that are legal and protected by the Constitution.    I am not required to register and there is no principle required to register.  I am not paid to lobby on behalf of any organization nor has AZFRAI or myself made any expenditure to a member of the legislature.

For the reasons listed below I deny Representative Hershberger’s complaint regarding improper registration.  I consider his complaint to be an attempt to GAG a citizen and threat to my fundamental rights protected by the Constitution.

Registration Exceptions (See A.R.S. 41-1232.04) (Noted in the Lobbyist Handbook)

Registration is not required in the following situations:

• 1 A natural person who is a member of an association and who is not the lobbyist for compensation, designated lobbyist or authorized lobbyist for the association and who does not make any expenditures that would otherwise be required to be reported by this article if the natural person were a lobbyist, designated public lobbyist or authorized public lobbyist.
• 2 A person who contacts a state officer or state employee solely for the purpose of acquiring information.
• 3 A person who answers technical questions or provides technical information at the request of a lobbyist, designated public lobbyist, authorized public lobbyist or legislator and who makes no expenditures required to be reported by this article.
• 4 A natural person, who, acting in his own behalf, sends a letter to, converses or the telephone with or has a personal conversation with a state officer or employee for the purpose of supporting or opposing any legislation or official action.
• 5 A natural person who appears for himself before a committee of the legislature before a state officer or employee or a state agency, board, commissions or council to lobby in support of or opposition to legislation or official action.

Arizona Revised Statutes SS 41.1238. Limitations.  “No provision of this article shall be construed, interpreted or enforced so as to limit, impair, abridge or destroy any person’s right of freedom of expression and participation in government processes, or freedom of the press.”

I do not believe any violation of the lobbying laws has occurred and would be more than happy to discuss this matter with you in person or on the telephone to clarify any further issues.   Please feel free to contact me anytime, via email or in writing.  Unfortunately I am not reachable by phone at this time. However, I would be glad to return a call to you upon your request via email. My email address is rscoins@cox.net

I would appreciate you notifying Terry Goddard, Attorney General and Andrew Thomas, Maricopa County Attorney as to the outcome of your findings.  I would also appreciate it if you would send a copy of your findings to Senate President Tim Bee and House Speaker Jim Weiers to ensure my name and credibility is not compromised.  

Thank you

Sincerely,

Robin Scoins
PO Box 876
Peoria, AZ 85380

Cc: Andrew Thomas, Maricopa County Attorney
     Terry Goddard, Arizona Attorney General
     Senate President Tim Bee
     Speaker of the House Jim Weiers

It concerns an effort by a powerful state legislator to abuse state law to intimidate a citizen into silence.

From time to time I hear from  Robin Scoins of the Arizona Family Rights Advocacy Institute.  Like those who found many such grassroots organizations around the country, Ms. Scoins got involved after having her own run-in with CPS.  (Her story is included in last year’s excellent New Times article,  available here: http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2006-10-26/news/suffer-the-children/ ).

Like most such organizations I’ve  encountered, AZFRAI has one staff person, Ms. Scoins.  She is unpaid.  Any meager expenses come out of her own pocket. She certainly does not hold lavish legislative receptions, take  lawmakers to fancy dinners or make huge campaign contributions.

In short, she is a citizen petitioning for redress of grievances, much the way people living on a street  with a lot of accidents might form the “Citizens Committee for a Traffic Lights” and speak at public hearings of their local City Council.

The equivalent of the City Council member who doesn’t want to spend money on a traffic light is Rep. Pete Hershberger. He usually opposes  what Ms. Scoins favors and vice versa. You would think being a powerful state lawmaker opposing a one-person  unpaid staff, all volunteer citizen group would be enough for Hershberger.

But last month, Rep. Hershberger sent a letter to the Secretary of State urging her to launch an investigation into whether AZFRAI and Ms. Scoins are “properly registered” as a lobbying group  and lobbyist respectively.  He sent copies of his letter to the Attorney General and the Maricopa County Attorney. 

When Ms. Scoins sent me the  letter I went to the Arizona Secretary of State website and looked through the  199-page “lobbyist’s handbook” (a lot of those pages are sample forms, but  still)  I waded through a lot of  dense prose and, not being a lawyer, I still can’t tell if, as a result of some absurd technicality, Ms. Scoins can be forced to fill out a lot of forms to  prove she isn’t spending anything and be forced to pay filing fees.

But there’s no way doing that to Ms. Scoins is in the spirit of the law.  And it is a clear violation of the spirit of another law: the First  Amendment.  Copying in the Attorney General and the Maricopa County Attorney makes Hershberger’s real goal plain: to  bully and intimidate a citizen who has done no more than disagree with his point of view on legislation. If he succeeds it will have a chilling effect on any citizen who dares to band together with a few others to disagree with a powerful legislator.

And it has one more detrimental effect that journalists should be concerned about: These kinds of disclosure laws are generally very good laws; it is very much in the public interest to know when big special interests are using their power and money to influence  lawmakers  But Hershberge’s bullying plays right into the hands of big corporations and other special  interests who want to keep disclosure to a minimum.  What can serve them better than a legislator abusing well-intended disclosure legislation to bully a citizen?

I would hope that journalists, who never hesitate to champion the First Amendment when their own interests are at stake, will be as quick to rally to the defense of a citizen’s First  Amendment rights, even when it is a citizen with whom they happen to  disagree.

At a minimum, now that Rep.  Hershberger has revealed himself for the bully his is, should he get his “gotcha  moment” and succeed in forcing Robin Scoins to go through a lot of paperwork and some expense, he can redeem himself by lending Ms. Scoins a staffer to fill out the forms and paying the fees for her.

Richard Wexler
Executive  Director
National Coalition for Child Protection Reform
53 Skyhill Road  (Suite 202)
Alexandria VA 22314
(703) 212-2006
www.nccpr.org

Q. If you could do only ONE thing to protect your family, what would that be?
A. Amend Your State Constitution with the FAMILY RIGHTS AMENDMENT