In a unanimous ruling, the Arizona Supreme Courtroom dominated on Thursday that the Maricopa County Superior Courtroom and Arizona Courtroom of Appeals wrongfully sanctioned the Arizona Republican occasion in awarding lawyer charges in opposition to them over a lawsuit difficult Maricopa County’s post-election hand-count audit procedures.
“We maintain that the lawyer charges award was improper as a result of Petitioners’ declare was not groundless, thus obviating any want to find out whether or not the declare was made within the absence of fine religion,” Justice John Lopez writes within the court docket’s opinion.
“Throughout instances of social and political rivalry and strife, we have to be aware that our courts present a method of resolving such conflicts when points are legitimately offered. By sanctioning events and their attorneys for bringing debatable, long-shot complaints, courts danger chilling authorized advocacy and residents elevating ‘questions’ beneath the guise of defending the rule of regulation. Even when carried out inadvertently and with the most effective of intentions, such sanctions current an actual and current hazard to the rule of regulation,” the ruling additionally states.
The Arizona Mirror experiences,
The lawsuit was filed greater than per week after the 2020 election and argued that the state regulation requiring restricted post-election hand-count audits conflicted with the state’s Elections Procedures Handbook, making it unlawful to pick ballots for the audit from voting facilities as an alternative of by precinct.
State regulation requires every county at hand rely 1% of all early ballots, in addition to the ballots from 2% of precincts after every election. The Election Procedures Handbook issued by the secretary of state permits counties that use voting facilities as an alternative of precincts, a listing that features Maricopa County, at hand rely the ballots from 2% of voting facilities as an alternative.
Maricopa County Superior Courtroom Decide John Hannah dismantled the authorized arguments that the AZGOP and its attorneys made. Along with ignoring the regulation and the legislature’s intent when permitting for voting facilities, Hannah mentioned the Republican Get together sought a treatment that the regulation doesn’t enable and waited far too lengthy to file its go well with.
The choose additionally mentioned the occasion demonstrated it was not motivated by sincerely difficult a public coverage, however as an alternative by making a political case and sowing mistrust about Arizona’s elections.
Nonetheless, the Supreme Courtroom opines, “We can’t countenance the trial court docket’s inflexible delineation between the motives underlying election litigation— ‘political’ causes, which invite sanction beneath § 12-349, and ‘authorized or factual’ justifications, that are permissible.” It continues, “The will to vindicate a authorized proper—even when within the election context and animated solely by political motives—shouldn’t be related, a lot much less per se sanctionable. Courts ought to deal with the authorized and factual deserves of a declare and the occasion’s and lawyer’s conduct in the midst of the litigation.”
“The trial court docket emphasised in its ruling that Petitioners’ gravest transgression and ‘direct proof of unhealthy religion’ was ‘[u]ndercutting the election’s legitimacy by elevating “questions,”‘ which it characterised as ‘a menace to the rule of regulation posing as an expression of concern.’ However ‘elevating questions’ by petitioning our courts to make clear the which means and utility of our legal guidelines and noting the potential penalties of the failure to take action—significantly within the context of our elections—isn’t a menace to the rule of regulation, even when the claims are charitably characterised as ‘lengthy pictures.’”
They additional slam the trial court docket, writing, “the trial court docket dismissively described Petitioners’ interpretation of § 16-602(B) as ‘barely colorable’ regardless of its avowed disinterest within the deserves and lack of substantive evaluation.”
John Hannah is similar partisan Decide who, as The Gateway Pundit beforehand reported, ordered the Cyber Ninjas agency to pay a $50K per day fantastic till it turns over data from their evaluate of the Maricopa County forensic audit to the far-left Arizona Republic propaganda rag.
The Arizona GOP launched an announcement earlier celebrating the ruling:
We’re happy with the Supreme Courtroom of Arizona’s determination to reverse and vacate the lawyer charges awards beforehand levied in opposition to us. This ruling reaffirms the elemental authorized precept that elevating questions in regards to the interpretation and utility of election legal guidelines is a reputable use of the judicial system, not a groundless or unhealthy religion motion. We stay dedicated to making sure that election legal guidelines are adopted exactly, upholding the integrity of our electoral course of.
VICTORY IN COURT!
The Arizona Supreme Courtroom defends our proper to query and make sure the integrity of election legal guidelines. ️ pic.twitter.com/5aRSMFcKXj
— Republican Get together of Arizona (@AZGOP) Might 2, 2024
Per George Behizy:
BREAKING: The Arizona Supreme Courtroom simply issued a serious defeat to decrease court docket judges that threatened the state Republican Get together with sanctions for bringing election challenges in opposition to Maricopa County
“However ‘elevating questions’ by petitioning our courts to make clear the which means and utility of our legal guidelines and noting the potential penalties of failure to take action – significantly within the context of our elections – isn’t a menace to the rule of regulation, even when the claims are charitably characterised as ‘lengthy pictures’.”
AZ Sup Courtroom: “Any suggestion {that a} occasion or lawyer faces enhanced danger of sanction merely as a result of they couple political motives with a long-short effort to vindicate a authorized proper within the election regulation context intolerably chills residents and their attorneys exactly in an space the place we are able to least afford to silence them.”
BREAKING: The Arizona Supreme Courtroom simply issued a serious defeat to decrease court docket judges that threatened the state Republican Get together with sanctions for bringing election challenges in opposition to Maricopa County
“However ‘elevating questions’ by petitioning our courts to make clear the which means and… pic.twitter.com/wpnQm4FapC
— George (@BehizyTweets) Might 2, 2024
Learn the total opinion beneath:
