Lady Justice
By Jeremy Duda | Arizona Mirror
As the Arizona Senate prepares to vote on whether to hold the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in contempt for refusing to comply with subpoenas for a trove of equipment, data and ballots from the 2020 general election, the county is asking a judge to quash the subpoenas, arguing that they’re unlawful and invalid on several grounds.
In a complaint filed in Maricopa County Superior Court on Friday afternoon, the supervisors argued that the Senate has no legal authority to seek election materials, including 2.1 million ballots, through subpoena. While the Senate does have subpoena power, the county’s lawyers said that authority is limited, and Senate President Karen Fann is far exceeding it with her request.
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State law permits the House and Senate to compel witnesses to appear and testify at legislative hearings. That is not what the subpoenas issued last month by Fann and Sen. Warren Petersen, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, seek to do.
“This case is not about whether the Arizona legislature has the power to issue subpoenas: it does,” wrote Stephen Tully, an attorney representing Maricopa County. “In short, this case is about sham legislative subpoenas.”
