By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services via Arizona Capitol Times
Secretary of State Katie Hobbs is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to spurn a request by Attorney General Mark Brnovich to defend Arizona’s ban on “ballot harvesting.”
In legal papers filed with the nation’s high court, Hobbs said the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals got it right when it concluded that the law, approved by the Republican-controlled legislature in 2016, was adopted at least in part to discourage minority voting. She also noted the appellate judges found that it does, in fact, have a disproportionate effect on the ability of minorities to cast a ballot.
But attorney Jessica Ring Amunson, representing the Democrat secretary of state, told the justices that there’s an even more basic reason they should send Brnovich packing.
Amunson said it was the secretary of state’s office that had been sued, years ago, before Hobbs held the office. And she said that means it is Hobbs, the current holder of the office, who decides whether to appeal that 9th Circuit ruling.
