Record
Here’s what Brnovich has done fighting every day for Arizonans.
Challenged Dangerous Border Policies
Arizonans deserve safety and security in their communities and along the southern border. Ensuring that security is one of the proper roles of elected officials. As Attorney General, Mark Brnovich has led the fight against the failed border policies of the Biden Administration that are violating existing law and putting human lives at risk.
- Challenged the Biden Administration’s initial 100-day pause on deportations and subsequent “interim guidance” that presumptively halts nearly all deportations outside of three narrow categories.[1]
- Filed a lawsuit against the Biden Administration’s halting of border wall construction. The halt violates the National Environmental Policy Act. Case ongoing.[2]
- Argued in front of the Supreme Court and led a coalition of states to defend the Public Charge Rule (ensuring non-citizens can financially support themselves before becoming U.S. citizens) after the Biden Administration refused to defend it. City and County of San Francisco; County of Santa Clara v. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and State of Arizona.[3]
- Intervened to defend “Migrant Protection Protocols” (the “Remain in Mexico” Policy) when the Biden Administration abandoned it.[4]
- Strongly urged the Biden Administration to cease converting a Scottsdale hotel to an ICE detention center.[5]
- Led a multi-state coalition lawsuit against the Biden Administration’s attempts to to effectively halt enforcement of immigration laws. [6]
- Uncovered a Facebook policy allowing users to post information about how to illegally immigrate and be smuggled into the United States, and called on S. AG Garland and the DOJ to join Arizona in holding Facebook accountable.
Advocated for Taxpayers
Government has a natural appetite for growth and sucking more and more from citizens. As Attorney General, Mark Brnovich has led on protecting taxpayers from unconstitutional tax mandates, most recently under the Biden Administration.
- Took the Biden Administration to court over unconstitutional tax mandates in the latest COVID-19 relief bill (American Rescue Plan Act). In progress.[1]
- Sued the Arizona Board of Regents over skyrocketing college tuition rates that are making it increasingly difficult for Arizonans to afford college.[2]
- Won a unanimous decision from the Arizona Supreme Court striking down unlawful in-state tuition for DACA recipients and upholding the will of Arizona voters.[3]
- Sued the Arizona Board of Regents for a multi-million-dollar gift clause violation, alleging ASU used its tax-exempt land to give Omni Hotels a sweetheart property deal, harvesting tax dollars while Arizona taxpayers got nothing, and tuition rates continued to skyrocket. The case is pending at the Arizona Supreme Court.[4]
- Led a coalition of 20 states supporting Ohio’s lawsuit challenging the Biden Administration’s unconstitutional Tax Mandate in the recent bill that threatens to withhold COVID-19 relief funding from states.
Defended Arizona’s Election Integrity
Arizonans must be able to trust that their elections are secure and their votes count. At the office of Attorney General, we’ve been defending Arizona’s election integrity long before it was cool. For years, the left has been challenging our election laws and third-party groups have recently used COVID-19 to circumvent the legislative process. That’s why we have to be vigilant.
- Stood up to the Democratic National Committee at the U.S. Supreme Court and successfully defended Arizona’s common-sense laws restricting ballot harvesting and out-of-precinct voting.[1]
- Established Arizona’s first Election Integrity Unit in 2019 to “vigorously defend our state’s common-sense election laws and prosecute anyone who is found to have committed voter fraud.”[2]
- Defended Arizona’s election integrity laws when other elected officials would not.[3]
- Stood up to radical measures that sought to override the constitution and undermine election integrity – like a challenge to force the acceptance of electronic signatures rather than in-person signatures to place sweeping out-of-state funded laws on the ballot.
- Intervened and prevented the illegal “curing” of ballots with no signatures prior to the 2020 election.[4]
- Obtained a restraining order stopping Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes from illegally mailing thousands of ballots to voters who didn’t request them.[5]
- Prosecuted voters who committed election fraud – like double voting[6], suspected Yuma ballot harvesters[7], and convicted felons.
- Successfully forced the Maricopa Board of Supervisors to adhere to law and accept the Senate’s request to turn over information needed to audit the 2020 election. [8]
- Rebuked Biden’s AG, Garland, over the DOJ’s unconstitutional posture to election integrity and sensationalizing of Arizona’s election audit.
Took on Burdensome Regulations
Government shouldn’t be picking winners and losers. You should have the freedom to run your business, earn a living, and conduct your life with minimal government interference. But all too often, the government overreaches.
As Attorney General, Mark Brnovich has always believed in achieving a light regulatory touch, and he has fought on behalf of citizens and businesses against unduly burdensome regulations. In response, business and innovation have thrived in Arizona.
- Successfully implemented a nation-leading financial innovation and helped build well-paying jobs in Arizona by implementing sandbox deregulation.[1]
- Challenged Biden Administration’s regulatory carbon policy – a back door Green New Deal. The policy requires regulations to be implemented or removed based on the “social costs of carbon”, which would prohibit good rules and necessitate horrific ones.[2]
- Successfully stopped a serial litigator who was harassing businesses with baseless copy-and-paste lawsuits for ADA infractions. The litigator was disbarred.[3]
- Led the nation in a groundbreaking suit that exposed Google’s predatory tracking scheme which used and sold users information without their consent. The case is still pending and is proceeding to trial in the Fall of 2022.
Went to Bat for Consumers
Mark Brnovich believes in fighting for consumers, not attorneys. He went toe-to-toe with some of the largest entities and corporations to get restitution for Arizonans who were the victims of fraud. As Arizona’s Attorney General, Brnovich has returned over $200 million to consumers, a record amount and more than the previous three AGs combined.
- Recovered $24 million in restitution for consumers from APS after a lack of transparency that led to Arizonans misunderstanding plan benefits and overpaying for their utilities.
- Secured over $15 million in restitution for Arizona consumers who bought certain General Motors and Volkswagen vehicles with safety defects.
- Got millions in debt relief for Arizona students who lost money to failed schools such as ITT Tech, Argosy University, and Collins College.
- Fought for $1.9 million for Arizona CenturyLink customers who were not given discounts promised by the company.
- Secured refunds for the more than 76,000 Arizonans who used Theranos tests. As a result, these Arizonans were able to recover all out-of-pocket costs from the fraudulent tests.
- Ensured trial lawyers don’t get more restitution than victims by intervening in more than a dozen class action lawsuits under the Class Action Fairness Act.
- Successfully obtained over $71 million dollars for Ticketmaster customers and nearly $2 million dollars in reimbursements for customers from StubHub, who chose in March to not uphold their full refund policy for events canceled due to COVID-19.
- Defended Americans’ privacy from Biden’s reckless power grab which instructs the IRS to track all of Americans’ significant financial transactions.
- Recovered $1.5 billion in consumer protection suits during tenure as Arizona’s Attorney General.
- Settled a $26 billion dollar agreement with pharmaceutical companies for their role in creating the opioid epidemic, bringing in $542 million for Arizonans.
Defended the Second Amendment
The right to keep and bear arms is constantly under assault. But it remains as vital to our freedom as it did when the Bill of Rights was adopted over 200 years ago. Under Attorney General Brnovich, Arizona has led in defending the Second Amendment rights of Americans in states across the country.
- Fought back against California’s ban on high-capacity magazines. Case pending.[1]
- Led multi-state effort arguing New York’s law requiring “proper cause” to carry a gun outside your home is unconstitutional. Awaiting SCOTUS hearing. [2]
- Led a challenge to a Massachusetts law that effectively prohibited citizens from carrying a gun outside their home for self-defense.[3]
- Led multi-state brief challenging New Jersey’s unconstitutional high-capacity magazine ban.[4]
- Joined a brief challenging Hawaii’s ban on open carry of firearms.[5]
- Led a multi-state brief challenging a D.C. restriction requiring residents to prove a special need to carry a gun. The restriction was struck down.[6]
- Opposed the Biden Administration’s appointment of a radical anti-Second Amendment nominee to lead the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) agency.[7]
- Fought against a new firearm attachment tax coming before the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms) agency. [8]
Protected Life
One of the most basic functions of law and government is to protect innocent human life at every stage. But once again, this isn’t a political platitude for Mark Brnovich. He’s actively fought to defend life in the courts. As Attorney General, Brnovich weighed in on a dozen pro-life cases.
- Led a 20-state brief supporting the right of Kentucky’s Attorney General to defend the state’s law banning barbaric dismemberment abortions (case pending)[1] and joined similar efforts in Alabama and Texas.[2]
- Defended Arizona’s pro-life laws against a lawsuit from Planned Parenthood –which the abortion giant ultimately dropped.[3]
- Joined briefs supporting laws in Indiana and Arkansas that protect pre-born children with disabilities from being singled out for abortion based on their disability.[4]
- Led 20-state brief to protect law enforcement investigative powers by opposing a gag order on investigative journalist David Daleiden for his undercover Planned Parenthood videos.[5]
- Supported Mississippi’s 15 week ban on abortions by joining legal brief calling for returning the regulation of abortion to the states by overturning Roe v. Wade (case pending at U.S. Supreme Court).[6]
- Leading the defense of Arizona’s law[7] prohibiting abortions based on a disability.
- Leading the defense of Arizona’s ban on discriminatory abortions[8] based on disabilities when every other named county attorney defendant refused to do so (SB1457, U.S. Supreme Court 2022).
- Part of multi-state coalition supporting Texas’s fetal heartbeat abortion law and opposing the Biden administration’s attempts to overturn it (U.S. Supreme Court 2021). [9]
- Filed legal challenge against the Biden administration’s new Title X rule that would allow taxpayer dollars to be used to fund abortions.[10]
Fought for Religious Freedom
You should be able to freely and peacefully live out your beliefs in every part of your life. Mark Brnovich believes the freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment must be vigilantly defended. This has become more necessary on a daily basis as the Federal government continues its overreach into the lives of Americans.
Arizona didn’t just have a role in defending religious freedom across the country – under Mark Brnovich as Attorney General, Arizona led.
As Attorney General, Brnovich weighed in on more than a dozen cases in courts across the country to defend the First Amendment.
- Issued a legal opinion during COVID-19 ensuring that church attendance is a Constitutionally protected activity amidst the Governor’s COVID-19 lockdowns.[1]
- Led a 27-state effort before the Supreme Court on behalf of a public high school football coach who lost his job after he knelt with participating players and quietly prayed at midfield after the conclusion of football games. The case is still being litigated.[2]
- Co-led an 18-state effort to protect the rights of religious schools to be given equal access to school choice tax credits. The religious schools ultimately won at the US Supreme Court.[3]
- Led multi-state efforts to protect the expressive speech of artists in Arizona, Colorado, and Virginia. The Arizona artists won their case at the Arizona Supreme Court. The Colorado and Virginia cases are still being litigated.[4]
- Aided a multi-state coalition supporting Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission, a religious nonprofit sued by a job candidate rejected for not holding to their religious beliefs. [5] Awaiting SCOTUS appeal.
- Joined a 20-state coalition seeking to overturn a Massachusetts court decision preventing a private religious college from making employee decisions based on religious beliefs. [6] Awaiting SCOTUS appeal.
- Recently led a multi-state amicus in support of the business owner’s appeal to the United States Supreme Court.
- Joined a multi-state amicus brief supporting a church’s challenge[7] to the Nevada Governor’s executive order that treated religious organizations more harshly than secular organizations (U.S. Supreme Court 2020).
- Supported Arkansas’s restrictions on sex-reassignment procedures, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones for children before the courts (8th Cir. Ct. of App. 2021).[8]
- Joined Tennessee and a coalition of states challenging the Biden Administration’s new guidance that threatens women’s sports and privacy (Dist. Ct. for the Eastern Dist. of Tennessee 2021).[9]
- Joined a multi-state coalition to support Miss U.S.A. pageant’s right to express its own message about womanhood (9th Cir. Ct. of App. 2021). [10]
- Challenged Boston’s discrimination against a religious group and prohibition of raising a Christian flag, especially when the city had allowed every other application and flag to be flown (awaiting U.S. Supreme Court opinion – 2022).[11]
- Joined a multi-state amicus brief that defends churches, synagogues, and mosques’s choices about their religious leadership[12] without fear that the courts will punish them or otherwise interfere with their decision-making (2nd Cir. Ct. of App. 2021).
- Supported faith-based adoption agencies whose contracts were canceled by Philadelphia because they did not provide written endorsements for same-sex couples, conflicting with their beliefs (U.S. Supreme Court 2021).[13]
Stood up for Israel
Israel is a key ally of the United States. As Attorney General, Mark Brnovich led the effort to ensure taxpayer-funded contracts do not go to anti-Semitic organizations seeking to boycott Israel.
- Led 16 state coalition to defend Arkansas’ law prohibiting the state from subsidizing boycotts of Israel.[1]
- Defended Arizona’s law prohibiting state-funded contractors from boycotting Israel.[2]
Stood up to COVID-19 Mandates
America does best when Americans make their own decisions, not the government. Health choices are no exception. Biden and local Democrats have been using “emergencies” and COVID-19 to bludgeon Arizonans’ rights. But the Constitution and checks against the abuse of government are built into our DNA as a nation. It is the Attorney General’s responsibility to look out for government overreach and abuses of power. Mark Brnovich is fighting illegal and unconstitutional COVID-19 mandates and forcing authoritarians to account for their anti-American power grabs. Americans should have the right to try, as well as the right not to try.
- Filed a first-in-the-nation lawsuit against the Biden Administration over their overreaching, illegal and unconstitutional national vaccine mandate.[1]
- Sued Biden when he weaponized the federal government to force vaccines on employees through OSHA. This resulted in a landmark 6-3 decision by the Supreme Court striking down this massive government overreach that would have impacted 84 million Americans.[2]
- Led a multi-state lawsuit against the Biden Administration’s unconstitutional “job or jab” COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers.[3]
- Continue to push the Governor to take immediate action against COVID-19 government mandates.
- Joined a multi-state lawsuit against Biden’s overreaching COVID mandate that masked toddlers and required vaccines for childcare workers.[4]
[1] Brnovich v. Biden [2] State of Missouri et al. v. Biden [3] State of Louisiana et al v Secretary of Health and Human Services et. al [4] AZAG.gov
defended parents' rights and school choice
Parents are the best advocates for their children. They are the ones who will make the best decisions when it comes to their children’s education. Woke ideology and political agendas have no business being involved in education, and children are the ones being harmed when our schools are run by bureaucrats. As Attorney General of Arizona, Mark Brnovich supports Arizona’s commitment to parents’ rights and school choice.
- Joined a multistate challenge to Maine’s discriminatory law prohibiting students from participating in student-aid programs if they want to attend religious schools.[1]
- Co-led a multistate amicus brief in support of the challenge to Montana’s discriminatory Blaine Amendment and the exclusion of religious schools from Montana’s student-aid program.[2]
[1] Carson v. Makin [2] Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue
