Supreme Court Rejects Arizona GOP Contest to Jan. 6 Subpoena (1)

The US Supreme Court rejected a bid by Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward to stop the Jan. 6 congressional committee from enforcing a subpoena for her phone records.

The order on Monday appears to clear the path for the committee to obtain Ward’s phone records, rebuffing her request for more time to press a claim that the subpoena violated her political association rights under the First Amendment. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said that they would have sided with Ward and continued to block the committee from enforcing the subpoena.

The court gave no explanation for the majority’s vote to deny Ward’s request. Thomas and Alito didn’t explain why they would have granted it.

Thomas has drawn criticism for not recusing himself from cases involving former President Donald Trump’s push to overturn the election results. The justice’s wife, conservative activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, played a role in that effort and answered questions from the congressional panel investigating the Capitol attack.

Ward’s lawyers and a spokesperson for the committee did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Jan. 6 committee is preparing to issue a final report before the end of this year’s congressional term, when its mandate expires. Ward’s case was one of several unresolved legal fights over efforts to compel testimony, phone records and documents in the investigation into the attack on the US Capitol and efforts by Trump and his allies to undermine the results of the 2020 election. Last week, Trump filed a new lawsuit in federal court in Florida challenging a subpoena for his testimony and documents.

Ward had argued that the subpoena to T-Mobile USA Inc. violated her rights to political association. She asked the justices on Oct. 26 to immediately step in after a federal appeals court rebuffed her request for a temporary injunction to stop the committee from getting her phone and text records; Justice Elena Kagan temporarily halted enforcement of the subpoena while the court considered Ward’s emergency application.

A federal district judge in Arizona dismissed Ward’s case against the Jan. 6 committee in September, finding her claim that the subpoena would “chill” the political activities of Ward and the state Republican Party “highly speculative.”

In a 2-1 order, a 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals panel on Oct. 22 refused to block the subpoena during Ward’s appeal. The majority agreed with the district court that Ward failed to show that the demand for her phone records would violate the First Amendment.

The committee also had an “important government interest” in understanding Ward’s activities around the election because she “participated in a scheme to send spurious electoral votes to Congress,” Judges Eric Miller and Barry Silverman wrote. Miller was appointed to the bench by Trump and Silverman was appointed by former President Bill Clinton.

Judge Sandra Ikuta dissented. She wrote that the majority would prevent Ward from “raising serious questions” about whether the subpoena burdened her constitutional rights. Ikuta was appointed by former President George W. Bush.

Ward then asked the Supreme Court to pause the subpoena until the appeals court fully considered the case and issued a final ruling. Ward argued her First Amendment claim had “profound precedential implications for future congressional investigations and political associational rights.”

(Updated with more information from the order and requests for comment.)

To contact the reporter on this story:
Zoe Tillman in Washington at ztillman2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Tina Davis at tinadavis@bloomberg.net

Elizabeth Wasserman, Greg Stohr

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