In a letter to the Attorney General’s office, Mike Rankin said that an executive order issued by Gov. Doug Ducey asserting that existing state laws prohibit the imposition of vaccines only governs what health officials state and county can do. So any claim that this applies to Tucson, he said, is just plain bogus, and the governor’s order “is entirely void and meaningless.”

Rankin does not dispute that the legislature, in its dying days, approved SB 1824, a measure that prohibits state and local governments from requiring anyone to be vaccinated.

But he pointed out that the law does not come into force until the 91st day after state lawmakers ended their 2021 session, which is September 29. That fact alone, Rankin said, should be enough to convince the attorney general to dismiss Sen’s complaint. Kelly Townsend, R-Mesa, accusing Tucson of ignoring the law that has yet to be enacted.

And even assuming the effective date of September 29, Rankin said he’s still not convinced Tucson will break the laws. He pointed out that there are two lawsuits challenging the validity of the law on the basis of constitutional arguments about what can and cannot be in the law.

“I don’t believe there is a legitimate legal argument that SB 1824 is constitutionally sound,” he wrote. “It is not, and I am confident that SB 1824 and the enactment of (the ban on vaccine requirements) will be struck down by the courts in Arizona.”