Arizona Drops Charges Against ASU Student Who Was Arrested for Handing Out Copies of the Constitution
“We’re glad the state has dropped the charges, but this never should have happened”
It is absolutely stunning that this even happened in the first place.
The College Fix reports:
Arizona drops charges against ASU student arrested for handing out Constitution
The state of Arizona has dropped all charges against former Arizona State University student Tim Tizon, the Liberty Justice Center recently confirmed to The College Fix.
As an Arizona State University student and member of Young Americans for Liberty, Tizon was arrested and charged with criminal trespass in the third degree for distributing copies of the U.S. Constitution outside the ASU Memorial Union early last year.
“We’re glad the state has dropped the charges, but this never should have happened,” President Jacob Huebert of the Liberty Justice Center told The Fix via email.
“We are glad that these charges were dismissed against him, but we need Arizona State to change its policies to make it clear that you can exercise your free speech rights without worrying about getting arrested or having a [criminal] record,” he said.
Tizon, a student at the time of the incident, was arrested by the ASU Police Department on March 3, 2022.
In January of this year, Liberty Justice Center, which represents Tizon, appealed the conviction.
A brief in his defense argued that the Arizona Forum Act defines all public areas of the ASU campus as public forums in which students are free to express their own message, even controversial ones.
Following his arrest, Tizon said through his attorneys: “Universities are supposed to be the epicenter of the marketplace of ideas.”
“ASU has let me down and every other student too by placing its bureaucracy ahead of our First Amendment rights.”
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Comments
Good for him! Shame on ASU!
I’d sue the holy living #%~^ out them.
Then hire students to distribute all sort of printed “right wing” American constitutional pamphlets on ASU campus.
I’ll wait to be dressed down for not appreciating the nuance of ASU’s legal stance.
Between the ASU party animals, the UA artsy crowd, and the NAU tree huggers, deciding which one wins the woke title in any given year is a full-time job.
These three things leave me with questions:
1. Tizon, a student at the time of the incident, was arrested by the ASU Police Department on March 3, 2022.
2. The state of Arizona has dropped all charges against former Arizona State University student Tim Tizon, the Liberty Justice Center recently confirmed to The College Fix.
3. In January of this year, Liberty Justice Center, which represents Tizon, appealed the conviction.
So, what exactly happened on the legal end?
Charges filed (followed by conviction?) followed by appeal (followed by conviction being overturned?) followed by charges being dropped.
Conviction and its overturn are never mentioned but the piece reads like they happened.
Yes, hard to believe as it is, Tizon was arrested, charged, convicted and sentenced. He then appealed. Maybe someone familiar with Arizona procedure can explain the mechanics of how the judgment was withdrawn/overturned/vacated..
The really crazy thing about this case is that the prosecutor argued, and the trial court ruled, that Tizon’s constitutional rights should not be considered in defense against the criminal charge, but should be asserted by Tizon in a separate civil action. Wtf? Did these guys take high school civics?