The Volokh Conspiracy

Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent

About The Volokh Conspiracy Editorial Independence Who we are Books Volokh Daily Email Archives Search DMCA RSS

Free Speech

"Making Negative Statements" About People to Their Employers = Criminal Harassment

"[S]tatements made to third parties can be 'directed at' the victim," and thus criminal harassment if they're repeated and likely to cause serious annoyance or distress, "when they are designed to provoke an adverse consequence against the victim."

Eugene Volokh | 4.29.2026 8:01 AM

Arizona criminal harassment law provides, in relevant part:

A person commits harassment [a class 1 misdemeanor] if the person knowingly and repeatedly commits an act or acts that harass another person or the person knowingly … [c]ontacts or causes a communication with another person by verbal, electronic, mechanical, telegraphic, telephonic or written means….

"[H]arass" means conduct [excluding] a {lawful demonstration, assembly or picketing} [1] that is directed at a specific person and [2] that would cause a reasonable person to be seriously alarmed, annoyed, humiliated or mentally distressed and [3] the conduct in fact seriously alarms, annoys, humiliates or mentally distresses the person.

This pretty clearly covers certain kinds of unwanted communications to a person (e.g., repeated unwanted seriously annoying phone calls). But does it also cover communications about a person? The statute does specifically cover one such communication: making "a false report to a law enforcement, credit or social service agency against another person." But what about true statements, or expressions of opinion, about someone that are reasonably seriously upsetting—e.g., complaints to employers, which might put the target's job in jeopardy (surely something that would seriously alarm, annoy, humiliate, or mentally distress people)?

Monday's unanimous Arizona Supreme Court decision by Chief Justice Timmer in Hernandez v. Loarca says the law does cover such speech about people:

Briana Hernandez and Luis Loarca had a past romantic relationship that resulted in the birth of their daughter …, who was ten years old at the time of the events at issue…. Hernandez obtained an order of protection against Loarca based on allegations that he engaged in domestic violence by harassing her at Daughter's school, where Hernandez was also employed. See A.R.S. § 13-3601(A)(2) (including harassment by one parent against the other as an act of domestic........

© Reason.com