The legal fight involves a rubber-recycling company and its alleged securities violations.

But the real dispute is something about which Americans must have concern: Whether those targeted by a government action have a right to a jury decision, or if some government functionary can simply rule against them and order them to pay a penalty.

The fight is being handled by the Pacific Legal Foundation.

“The Arizona Supreme Court’s decision to hear this case recognizes that fundamental constitutional rights are at stake,” said Adi Dynar, an attorney for the foundation. “When government agencies act as prosecutor, judge, and jury, they violate the basic American principle that everyone deserves a fair trial before an impartial jury of their peers.”

It is the EFG America corporation that asked the Arizona Supreme Court to protect the constitutional right to jury trials, and the justices have agreed.

It was a state agency’s bureaucrats at the Arizona Corporation Commission that forced the Mesa-based company into unfair in-house tribunals.

Last year, the commission claimed in an enforcement action that EFG America and its founder, Douglas Fimrite, committed securities violations.

“The commission refused to allow the case to be heard in superior court with a jury, instead forcing it through the agency’s own administrative process where the same agency that investigated and charged EFG also judged the case,” the foundation reported.

It then was the Arizona Court of Appeals that ruled against EFG, claiming that defendants have no right to jury trials.

“This decision eliminates jury trials for a significant portion of civil cases in Arizona, undermining constitutional protections that have safeguarded Americans since the founding,” PLF said.

But, it noted, “Both the Arizona Constitution and the U.S. Constitution’s Seventh Amendment guarantee jury trials in civil cases where the government seeks monetary penalties. The U.S. Supreme Court recently reaffirmed this principle in SEC v. Jarkesy. Now, the Arizona Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether the same checks and balances protect the fundamental constitutional rights of Arizonans.”

Bob Unruh

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is currently a news editor for the WND News Center, and also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh's articles here.