Green

Plaintiffs are residents and qualified voters of a community known as Tortolita, located in Pima County, Arizona. In 1997, an overwhelming majority of Tortolita’s qualified voters petitioned the Pima County Board of Supervisors to incorporate Tortolita as a new municipality. Arizona law, however, prohibits the incorporation of a community unless all existing municipalities of 5,000 or more inhabitants within six miles of the community’s boundaries give their prior consent. See Ariz.Rev. Stat. § 9-101.01. The City of Tucson and the Towns of Maraña and Oro Valley (“Defendants”) each has 5,000 or more inhabitants and lies within six miles of the boundaries of Tortolita. All three municipalities have opposed Tortolita’s incorporation. Plaintiffs brought the present § 1983 action against Defendants, claiming that the consent requirement of § 9-101.01 violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because it unjustifiably burdens their right to vote on municipal incorporation. 1 Plaintiffs argue that the right to petition for incorporation granted by Arizona law is the constitutional equivalent of the right to vote and is therefore protected by the Equal Protection…