The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, declined to review a lower-court ruling that ordered lawyers for former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake to pay $122,000 in legal fees. The fees were assessed as sanctions for what a judge described as false and misleading statements made in a 2022 lawsuit seeking a hand count of midterm election ballots.
The underlying litigation, filed by Lake and state lawmaker Mark Finchem, sought to prohibit the use of electronic tabulation devices in Arizona elections. U.S. District Judge John Tuchi dismissed the case in 2022, finding that the plaintiffs lacked standing and that the suit was filed too close to the election. Maricopa County subsequently requested sanctions, alleging the legal team filed unfounded claims without proper research.
Judge Tuchi ruled that the lawsuit's claims lacked an adequate factual basis and that the attorneys acted recklessly. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals later upheld both the dismissal of the lawsuit and the sanctions. Andrew D. Parker, a Minneapolis-based attorney for Lake, petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the costs, arguing that such penalties could discourage lawyers from pursuing novel legal theories.
For Maricopa County, the $122,000 represents a reimbursement for legal costs incurred while defending against the litigation. In a broader sense, the Supreme Court's refusal to intervene maintains a precedent for the use of court rules to penalize attorneys who present what judges deem to be frivolous or insufficiently researched claims. Legal professionals may notice a stricter enforcement of inquiry standards before filing election-related challenges in federal court.
The decision brings a conclusion to the specific dispute over these sanctions. The payment is owed to Maricopa County following the exhaustion of the appeals process. While the Supreme Court's order on Tuesday ends this request for review, it does not change the results of the 2022 elections in which Lake and Finchem were defeated by Democrats Katie Hobbs and Adrian Fontes, respectively.