Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sam Myers said on Monday during a hearing in Attorney General Kris Mayes’ prosecution of the 2020 alternate electoral slate for Donald Trump and their associates that there were enough grounds in the defendants’ motions to likely dismiss the prosecutions due to violating the First Amendment.
Myers, who previously clerked for a Democratic Senator and was appointed to the bench by Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano, made the decision without hearing oral arguments due to the strength of the defendants’ arguments, he said.
The judge addressed motions to dismiss based on the state’s anti-SLAPP law filed by former State Senator Anthony Kern and Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Several other defendants filed similar motions, including Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar, John Eastman, and former Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward. State Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Mesa) and then-House Speaker Ben Toma filed an Amicus Curiae brief supporting Ward’s motion.
Anti-SLAPP laws prohibit using the courts to suppress the First Amendment, including the constitutional rights of petition, speech, and association. Mayes said she intends to appeal the ruling in the “fake electors case.” While Myers’ ruling doesn’t grant the motions to dismiss, it puts the burden on Mayes to show now why they shouldn’t be granted.
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