Arizona Court of Appeals to Expedites Kari Lake’s Election Challenge Appeal

The Arizona Court of Appeals has set a date of February 1st for conferencing on Kari Lake’s lawsuit attempting to overturn the results of the 2022 General election.

“Our appeal is scheduled to be heard before the court on February 1st. Do not underestimate @KariLake’s desire to get justice for the people of Arizona. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. She will see this through,” tweeted the Lake campaign.

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Pima County Reworks Lease with World View Following Successful Appeal from the Goldwater Institute

Pima County announced Wednesday that its board of supervisors has settled on a new lease agreement with aerospace firm World View following a legal defeat from the Arizona-based Goldwater Institute (GI).

“This revision of the World View lease should put to rest years of legal wrangling over how Arizona counties can participate in economic development activities and business retention. Having prevailed on three of Goldwater’s four claims, and Goldwater on the fourth, we and all the other counties in the state now know where the lines are drawn, which is the silver lining in this costly dispute,” said County Administrator Jan Lesher in a statement shared with the press.

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Arizona Supreme Court Denies Kari Lake Request, Case Heads for Court of Appeals

Arizona Supreme Court (ASC) Justice John R. Lopez released an opinion Wednesday evening denying Republican Kari Lake’s request to transfer her election challenge case directly to the ASC. Despite the denial, Lake remains undeterred in her legal battle.

“My court case will be going before the Appeals Court prior to the Arizona Supreme Court because it’s already been scheduled for review. This decision was done without prejudice & I am confident the case will end up in their hands eventually. We’re moving forward,” Lake tweeted.

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Arizona Court of Appeals to Hear Case Involving 2020 Maricopa County Ballot Images

Audit USA (AU), a nonpartisan organization based in Arizona focusing on election integrity, will have an opportunity to present arguments in the Arizona Court of Appeals Wednesday in a case involving Maricopa County and ballot images.

“I’m hopeful we will win this case because the facts are with us and transparency in our elections is vital for democracy,” said John Brakey, co-founder and director of AU. “Transparency is the currency of trust and without it, our democracy will die in darkness.”

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Governor Doug Ducey Fills Seven Court Positions During Final Week in Office

During his final week in office, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) filled several court position vacancies across Arizona, including the Arizona Court of Appeals and the Yuma County Superior Court.

“I am very pleased to announce the appointment of six new judges to the Arizona Court of Appeals,” said Ducey. “These new judges will provide the much needed resources for the Court of Appeals to handle its growing caseload as more and more people choose Arizona as a place to live, work, and start a business.”

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Ohio Senate Passes Bill Expanding College-Savings Deduction

The Ohio state Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed legislation to permit more families to take advantage of an income-tax deduction that incentivizes saving for college. 

The measure sponsored by Senators Jay Hottinger (R-OH-Newark) and Andrew Brenner (R-OH-Delaware) applies the deduction to all savings programs nationwide established under Section 529 of the federal Internal Revenue Code. Current law allows Ohioans to take the deduction only for contributions to Ohio’s own 529 program.

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Ohio Think Tank Asks Court to Kill EPA’s Electric Vehicle Mandate

Joining an effort to kill a new Biden-administration regulation to advance the manufacture of electric vehicles, the Columbus-based Buckeye Institute filed a brief against the rule in federal court last week. 

In so doing, the pro-free-market think tank joined the state of Texas and other petitioners in asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to throw out tightened greenhouse-gas emission standards. The Environmental Protection Agency designed the new standards last year to further President Joe Biden’s objective to make all newly manufactured vehicles in the U.S. electric-powered by 2030. 

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Wisconsin Appeals Court Outlaws Practice of Spoiling Absentee Ballots to Vote Again

A Wisconsin appeals court has upheld a lower court’s ruling forbidding the practice of “ballot spoiling,” requiring the state’s election commission to rescind guidance it had earlier issued on the matter.

The state’s 2nd District Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld a county circuit court’s directive that ordered the Wisconsin Elections Commission to rescind its earlier instructions issued to voters who wished to void their submitted ballot and cast a new one.

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Tennessee Coalition for Open Government’s Deborah Fisher on the Likelihood of Robby Starbuck’s Inclusion on TN-5 GOP Ballot

Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Tennessee Coalition for Open Government’s Executive Director Deborah Fisher, to the newsmaker line to comment upon the recent ruling by Judge Russell Perkins to the Tennessee Republican Party to reinstate Robby Starbuck as a GOP candidate for Tennessee’s Fifth Congressional District.

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Commentary: Justices Must Stop the Legal System from Becoming a Quick-Return Investment Scheme for Trial Lawyers

United States Supreme Court building

In the interest of a return to normalcy, we take this short break from COVID and Ukraine coverage to bring to your attention an actual conservative policy matter. The pesky trial lawyers and their junk science “experts” are at it again, providing certain justices of the Supreme Court an opportunity to show us they can still do the right thing. 

I’m not pointing fingers at say, Justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh, but certain esteemed members of the court who had less than smooth sailing in their confirmation battles and for whom conservatives stormed the ramparts (figuratively speaking of course), have left us wondering if they were worth the battle scars. Here’s some low hanging fruit for them to pick off and make everyone breathe a little easier. All they have to do is vote to take a certain case.

The case involves a long-running dispute brought by the inventor of a special warming blanket called the Bair Hugger (now owned by 3M) which has proven to reduce post-operative infections and other complications and has been used in over 300 million surgeries worldwide to maintain patients’ body temperatures. The inventor, Dr. Scott Augustine made a fortune on this device but lost his rights to the product and its proceeds when he pled guilty to Medicare fraud in an unrelated matter. Dr. Augustine then invented a competing device and waged a campaign to discredit the Bair Hugger claiming that it caused infections. He then hired “experts” and funded studies to back up his claim. Except one of the actual authors of the studies called those studies “marketing rather than research.” As in not based on facts. The FDA admonished Dr. Augustine to stop the false campaign. And not a single physician who uses the Bair Hugger, or a single epidemiologist or any public health officials have supported Dr. Augustine’s contention. 

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North Carolina Governor Signs Law to Keep Court of Appeals Seats at 15

North Carolina’s Democratic Governor signed a bill into law which will keep the state’s number of Court of Appeals judges at 15. “A strong and unbowed, independent judiciary that works as part of our system of checks and balances is critical to our democracy and freedom,” said Cooper in a brief statement. Roy Cooper signed off on Senate Bill 75, which repeals a 2017 law (S. L. 2017-7) which would have reduced the Court of Appeals judgeships beginning whenever a vacancy was created until 12 judges remained. “On or after January 1, 2017, whenever the seat of an incumbent judge becomes vacant prior to the expiration of the judge’s term due to the death, resignation, retirement, impeachment, or removal pursuant to G.S. 7A-374.2(8) of the incumbent judge, that seat is abolished until the total number of Court of Appeals seats is decreased to 12.” Senate Bill 75 passed quickly and almost unanimously through both sides of the General Assembly, save for a single ‘nay’ vote in the House. The bill was filed on the 18th and Governor Cooper signed it on the 27th. The first vacancy that would have reduced the appeals court was set to happen in late March.…

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