Arizona weighs when lawyers' long-shot election challenges cross the line
At a state bar association event on election law last month, a jovial mood turned to silence after Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes told the assembled lawyers that they need to do a better job of upholding their professional standards.
Election lawyers are filing too many frivolous cases “just because the plaintiffs are mad at their political opponents,” Fontes said at the podium, and they’re endangering public faith in democracy.
To back up his admonition — which has not been reported previously — he cited the unprecedented number of election lawyers who are being sanctioned by the courts over frivolous claims. Judges in Arizona have issued penalties in at least five cases against lawyers who have filed election lawsuits since 2020 — as much as $122,000 in one case — and the bar association has received ethics complaints against more than two dozen lawyers.
But the rise in sanctions and disciplinary scrutiny is prompting debate about exactly when lawyers who bring election challenges are crossing the line, and whether professional standards of conduct have shifted.
https://azmirror.com/2024/05/21/arizona-weighs-when-lawyers-long-shot-election-challenges-cross-the-line/