Budget bills

PHOENIX — The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that provisions of four budget bills are void because they violate the state Constitution’s title requirement and one of the bills, which is entirely void, also violates the single subject rule. That bill spans dozens of subjects, including “dog racing, the lottery, voter registration, election integrity, the Governor’s emergency powers .. the definition of ‘newspaper’” and others.

The state had argued only the legislature, and not the courts, have authority to decide whether bills meet constitutional standards, but the court said “the responsibility of determining whether the legislature has followed constitutional mandates that expressly govern its activities is given to the courts — not the legislature."