The U.S. Supreme Court declined on October 13 to review sanctions imposed on lawyers over an unsuccessful challenge to Arizona’s voting system.
The denial in Parker v Gates leaves the lower-court ruling in place. It does not supply a Supreme Court explanation or turn the appellate court’s reasoning into a new nationwide holding.
The underlying lawsuit was brought for Kari Lake and Mark Finchem before the 2022 elections. In the decision included in the Supreme Court filings, the Ninth Circuit upheld sanctions after finding that lead lawyers made unsupported or misleading factual assertions and failed to undertake a reasonable inquiry before filing.
Those findings concerned what lawyers represented to a court, rather than whether political candidates may advocate changes to election systems. The appellate opinion addressed claims suggesting Arizona did not use paper ballots and lacked neutral testing of voting machines.
The district court had imposed $122,200 in fees on the lead attorneys and their firms. Tuesday’s refusal to hear the petition closes this request for Supreme Court review; it does not constitute a fresh trial of the election allegations.
Official Supreme Court docket and underlying court materials.
