Original Coverage & Source Attribution: www.kjzz.org
The U.S. Supreme Court won’t reverse over $100,000 in sanctions against the attorneys who filed a failed lawsuit on behalf of Kari Lake and state lawmaker Mark Finchem in an attempt to force Arizona to hand count ballots.
Lake and Finchem brought the lawsuit in 2022 as they both sought statewide office. They asked the court to block the use of voting machines in that election, which they both lost, arguing they are not reliable. They also argued the voting systems used in Maricopa County are prone to security breaches.
U.S. District Court Judge John Tuchi dismissed the case, finding they brought a number of misleading and baseless claims, including that Arizona does not use paper ballots and that voting machines are not adequately tested before use.
The judge also handed down $122,000 in sanctions against Andrew Parker and Kurt Olsen, the attorneys representing Lake and Finchem in the case. Olsen is a key figure in the election denial movement who has pushed President Donald Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election. Most recently, he resigned from the Justice Department, where he was working on an investigation into allegations that former government officials conspired against Trump.
Tuchi wrote that the sanctions were not designed to “ignore the importance” of making sure elections are secure.
“It is to make clear that the Court will not condone litigants ignoring the steps that Arizona has already taken toward this end and furthering false narratives that baselessly undermine public trust at a time of increasing disinformation about, and distrust in, the democratic process,” the judge wrote. “It is to send a message to those who might file similarly baseless suits in the future.”
Parker and Olsen appealed those sanctions, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the penalties.
Parker and the law firm he co-founded asked the Supreme Court to take up the case, claiming the sanctions were designed to stop lawsuits that presented a “novel” legal theory or politically unpopular arguments.
They cited Tuchi’s statement that the sanctions were designed to “send a message.”
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors urged the high court not to take up the case. The board argued the sanctions were not designed to silence unpopular, novel or politically unpopular legal challenges.
“The context makes clear that the district court intended to deter litigation based upon obviously false allegations,” attorneys for the board wrote in a June filing.
According to Supreme Court records, the justices denied Parker’s request to review the case.
Parker did not respond to a request for comment.
