Arizona’s Space-Squeezer on the Right to Record

​Protect The 1st praised the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals for its reversal last week of a long-standing refusal to acknowledge a First Amendment right-to-record the police when they are going about their official duty. Just a few days before, however, the State of Arizona moved in the opposite direction by placing new restrictions on the right to record.
 
The new law allows police to charge people with a misdemeanor who record them from within eight feet. The law does make exceptions that include those in a vehicle or enclosed structure. But critics still call the law overly broad and note the importance of citizen recording, especially when police bodycams go on the fritz.
 
The general counsel of the National Press Photographers Association says the law is “unworkable” because moving events like protests can bring journalists in and out of the eight-foot-range. An attorney with the ACLU in Arizona, K.M. Bell, told NPR: “This is content-based restriction, because I can stand three feet away from an officer and play Angry Birds, but I can’t stand three feet away and record them.”
 
Civil liberties advocates say that they will likely challenge the law in court when the first person is charged after the law takes effect on Sept. 24, 2022.