Arizona has been in the news a lot lately and seldom for any good reason. Now Jan Brewer who in this state is even something of a moderate-as we saw in the passage of Arizona's reactionary immigration law-is setting another standard for Arizona by illegally firing the chair of the state's bipartisan redistricitng commission.
Where as in many states officials who abuse the law and successfully violate the voting rights of citizens and avoid being disciplined, in Arizona, the failure to violate the voting rights of citizens is disciplined as Colleen Mathis was fired by Brewer for “neglect of duty and gross misconduct.” The neglect and gross misconduct in question is "According to Brewer, drawing many congressional districts where there would be competitive races between Democratic and Republican candidates,"
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/11/21/373734/brewer-prepares-to-reimpeach-election-official-who-was-illegally-fired-for-making-arizona-elections-too-competitive/
However, now the state supreme court has rejected Brewer's dismissal and she is back to square one. She has complained that the court didn't say what legitimate grounds there are to fire Mathis The only grounds according to the state constitution is "neglect and gross misconduct, or inability to discharge duties of office."
Brewer says "all options are on the table" to take another shot at firing Mathis, including rewording the letter in a way to pass constitutional muster.
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