The SJC is telling AG Andrea Campbell to stop delaying decisions related to the audit.
The court has ordered her to decide on representing the Auditor’s office in its ongoing legal battle to carry out a voter-approved legislative audit within 30 days.
The state’s highest court issued the order Thursday after hearing oral arguments from both Campbell’s and state Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s offices on Tuesday. The order gives Campbell 30 days to decide whether her office will represent DiZoglio in her legal battle against state legislative leaders to carry out the audit, allow outside counsel to represent the Auditor’s office, or continue to seek to strike the legal complaint filed by DiZoglio.
“It is ORDERED that: The Attorney General shall make a final determination as to the Auditor’s request for representation regarding the matters identified in paragraph (3) above, and file a status report regarding her decision with the court within thirty days of entry of this Order. The status report shall include a brief statement (without argument) regarding whether the Attorney General continues to seek a ruling on the motion to strike that is pending before this Court,” the SJC order reads. “No additional filings shall be made in this matter without leave of the court.”
But the order also states that DiZoglio has rolled back the scope of the audit to only include the Senate and “limited records,” and does not mention any records from the House. This marks a massive step back from DiZoglio’s promise to carry out a complete and unabated audit of the state Legislature — a campaign she has led for the better part of the past two years.
“The Auditor has now limited her request for representation to the defendants’ alleged failure to produce: (a) “the official budgets for the Senate for Fiscal Years 2021, 2022, 2023 [,] and 2024”; (b) “[c]opies of official audits of the Senate for Fiscal Years 2021, 2022, 2023 [,] and 2024”; (c) “[a] listing of all transactions related to the Senate’s balance forward line item for Fiscal Years 2021, 2022, 2023 [,] and 2024”; and (d) “[a] listing of all monetary agreements entered into by the Senate with any current or former employees or members of the Senate during Fiscal Years 2021, 2022, 2023 [,] and 2024”,” the SJC order says.
The Auditor’s office attributes this to a “clerical error” on the SJC’s part.
“The Auditor supports the scope outlined in the letters sent to the House and the Senate on January 6, 2025, that the language in this SJC order was based on. The letters are essentially identical, with the exception that the letter sent to the House references the House, and the letter sent to the Senate references the Senate,” explained Communications Director Alysha Garvin. “The language in the order appears to have been simplified by the Court to only reference the Senate, but it seems to be simply a clerical error that can be resolved easily.”
The SJC urged both the AG’s and Auditor’s offices in the Tuesday hearing to make progress in the ongoing legal dispute, with Justice Gabrielle Wolohojian — appointed to the SJC in 2024 by Gov. Maura Healey despite a years-long romantic relationship with the governor — suggesting that the high court order a deadline for Campbell to make a decision.
“Perhaps, would it not make more sense, given how the correspondence has gone so far, and I think we’ve probably all dealt with clients with whom there’s a communications breakdown, that maybe the AG identify what it would be willing to proceed with rather than continuing to ask the same questions and continuing to get the same kinds of responses where there doesn’t seem to be any,” Justice Wolohojian said.
Following an unrelated press event, the Herald attempted to ask Senate President Karen Spilka if she thought it was appropriate that Wolohojian was overseeing the case and if it constituted a conflict of interest. Spilka refused to answer the Herald’s questions as she walked into her State House office.
“The people of Massachusetts voted overwhelmingly for transparency and accountability in state government. This order moves the process forward and ensures the Attorney General must finally determine legal representation so the public’s interest is prioritized,” DiZoglio said in a press release reacting to the SJC order. “We are very grateful to the Supreme Judicial Court members for their timely decision.”
“We are very pleased with the SJC’s order,” added attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan, who represented the Auditor before the SJC. “We hope to hear from the Attorney General that she will withdraw her motion to strike the complaint so that this important case can move forward, so that we may seek to enforce the will of the People.”
The SJC has also expressed its desire to get to the bottom of the questions regarding the proposed audit’s constitutionality and the process by which it would be carried out.
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