Arizona Senatorial candidate Kari Lake — the MAGA acolyte who continues to deny that she lost the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial race to Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs — and former Arizona State Representative Mark Finchem have filed a petitioner’s supplemental brief against Adrian Fontes, Arizona Secretary of State, in the Supreme Court of the United States.
Lake and Finchem allege that Arizona’s “use of electronic voting machines violated their constitutional rights under the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of due process.” The Ninth Circuit dismissed their claims. They are now requesting “expedited consideration of this matter” at SCOTUS, which they say “is warranted by the seriousness of the issues and their effect on the upcoming 2024 election.” They claim to have new “extraordinary” evidence to support their allegations.
Several appellate lawyers across the country are mocking the Supreme Court filing including Raffi Melkonian of Houston, Texas who responded by writing: “This might be the single dumbest legal document of all. The king of all dumbness.”
Washington, D.C. appellate lawyer Tobias Loss-Eaton replied to Melkonian: “Even armed with your description, I was not prepared.”
This might be the single dumbest legal document of all. The king of all dumbness (Link is in the thread) https://t.co/6jS4oqqfNi
— Raffi Melkonian (@RMFifthCircuit) April 4, 2024
Alani Golanski in New York City chimed in: “They seem to be treating the idea of a brief in opposition as tantamount to a counterstatement of material facts in opposition to a summary judgment motion.”
Civil rights lawyer Matthew Segal added: “We should expect more stuff like this as the election gets closer. For some folks, the lesson of the 2020 election is that even if your filings go nowhere in court, they can persuade your supporters of things that aren’t true.”
Lake’s previous legal efforts haven’t met with the success she’d hoped for. Newsweek reported last summer: “In March, the state Supreme Court dismissed six of seven claims brought by Lake regarding the 2022 election. The remaining one was eventually dismissed by an Arizona trial court in May.”