A Maricopa County Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit Thursday challenging a campaign finance disclosure law approved by voters in 2022.

The Voters Right to Know Act, which passed with 72% of the vote, requires any organization that spends more than $50,000 on a statewide race to publicly disclose the names of donors who have given at least $5,000. The same rules apply to groups that spend $25,000 or more on local races.

The Center for Arizona Policy, an organization opposed to abortion rights, and the conservative Arizona Free Enterprise Club filed a lawsuit that argued the new rules would endanger their donors.

But Judge Scott McCoy ruled the organizations failed to provide any evidence that disclosing donor names would lead to harassment or threats of violence against those individuals. 

Former Attorney General Terry Goddard, who worked to pass the new law, applauded the ruling.

“He, I think, very appropriately said that this was something that the public obviously wanted and that it served a valid public purpose,” Goddard said.

It is the second time that McCoy has dismissed the case.

When they first filed the lawsuit, the plaintiffs argued the plain language of the new law violated privacy protections in the Arizona Constitution. 

McCoy dismissed those claims last year, but allowed the parties to amend the complaint to file an “as applied” challenge claiming the rules created by the Arizona Clean Elections Commission to enforce the law were specifically unfair to their donors. 

The groups cited threatening communications their staff has received in response to their political positions in the past. 

According to court filings, the Center for Arizona Policy cited about a dozen emails and other communications, including one that said, “Sooner or later, you will die, and some of us pray it is sooner….”

But McCoy found that examples cited by the plaintiffs — including protests against their past political positions — were likely protected speech.

“Such name calling, offensive comments and criticism are certainly rude,” McCoy wrote. “Many of the comments themselves, however, are protected speech. And 20 or so nasty comments in nearly 30 years of public advocacy does not demonstrate that CAP itself has been subjected to threats, harassment, and reprisals.”

McCoy pointed out that a political action committee affiliated with the Arizona Free Enterprise Club has disclosed its donors on the Arizona Secretary of State's Office website since 2006, and that the organization failed to provide evidence that those donors faced harassment.

Scott Freeman, an attorney with the conservative Goldwater Institute who represented the plaintiffs, said he plans to appeal the ruling. 

Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma and Senate President Warren Petersen filed a lawsuit last year against the Voters Right to Know Act, arguing it unlawfully gave the Legislature’s power to other branches of government, namely the Citizens Clean Elections Commission. That case is ongoing.