Arizona appellate courts are getting peppered with legal filings from attorneys and individuals who think they can drag the Kari Lake election appeals across the finish line. Today, the Arizona attorney who failed to get an Election Contest for Senate Majority Sonny Borelli across the starting line filed an Amended Special Action Petition in his own name to the Arizona Supreme Court. (It is also unlikely to find the starting line.)
Ryan Heath asks the Justices to reverse the trial court’s denial of Kari Lake’s Election Contest, and explains that Lake’s attorneys messed up by not presenting case law supporting his argument that Maricopa County did not properly check the signatures on early voting envelopes. (Confused? The Supreme Court Justices likely will be, as well.)
Meanwhile, the law firm responsible for several unsuccessful elections-related lawsuits – the Davillier Law Group – are trying to file their own “friend of the court” brief in Lake’s consolidated appeal in the intermediate level. Although Alex Kolodin – now serving in the Arizona Legislature – did not sign on, his colleagues attached the entire transcript from his one of his unsuccessful post-2020 cases.
And, a self-styled non-attorney from Oregon has asked to intervene in Lake’s appeals, claiming that Arizona’s entire set of election laws is unconstitutional because some Arizona citizens might not consider themselves to be U.S. citizens. (Disclosure: I litigated several cases in the 1990s against so-called “sovereign citizens” and will not be publishing this man’s writings. It is available in the court’s files.)
It is very likely that the Supreme Court will quickly deny the Heath Special Action, especially in light of its decision last week to not allow the Lake appeal to skip the intermediate court. The Court of Appeals might not decide the two motions in front of it until its conference on February 1.
