Staff Reports
The Supreme Court ruled that the House Select Committee can access the phone records of Kelli Ward, the chair of the Arizona Republican Party.
Ward had asked for a stay and an injunction to prevent the committee from accessing her phone records, but the Supreme Court denied her request. The House Select Committee, which is headed by Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., will now be able to get the records from T-Mobile.
The committee wanted the records to investigate the mechanics of the challenge to the 2020 presidential election. According to The Hill, conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas supported Ward's request for an injunction to prevent her political rivals from accessing her phone records.
On Wednesday, Justice Elena Kagan temporarily blocked the committee from accessing Ward's phone records. The court will continue to look into the issue.
The court denied Ward's request for an injunction and stayed the committee's access to her phone records. The ruling stated that the order that was entered by Kagan was no longer in effect. Alito and Thomas agreed to grant the stay and injunction.
Lawyers for Ward argued that the access to her text and telephone records would violate her free association rights. They also said that the committee would be able to access the names of Republican Party members who communicated with her.
In support of the subpoena, a judge in Arizona ruled on September 22 that the records should be given to the committee. She also found no evidence supporting Ward's claims that the production of the records would violate her free association rights. On Oct. 22, a court of appeals in San Francisco refused to put the subpoena on hold.
The Supreme Court's full court was still deciding how to proceed with the subpoena. As the justice who handles emergency requests from various states, including Arizona, Kagan was able to put the subpoena on hold.
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on NewsMax.
