An Arizona federal judge appointed by former President Barack Obama dismissed a lawsuit filed by the state’s Republican Party chairwoman.
U.S. District Court Judge Diane J. Humetewa declared GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward and her husband, Michael, must comply with a House J6 Committee subpoena demanding their phone records. The couple, who are physicians, argued giving their phone records to the Trump inquisition would violate medical privacy laws.
The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, for instance, requires health care providers to protect the confidentiality of patient data.
The Epoch Times further reported:
This comes after the committee earlier this year issued subpoenas to people with knowledge of efforts to send alternative Republican electors to Washington in support of then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 general elections.
In December 2020, Republican electors in seven states, including Arizona, cast alternative Electoral College votes for Trump. Ward has previously said that from their perspective, they represented the legitimately cast votes in those elections, which she said were marred by irregularities and allegations of fraud.
Ward and her husband were among 14 of 84 of these alternative electors who disputed the results of the general elections.
The committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol sought Ward’s and her husband’s phone records for the three months leading up to January 2021.
“That three-month period is plainly relevant to its investigation into the causes of the January 6th attack. The Court therefore has little doubt concluding these records may aid the Select Committee’s valid legislative purpose,” Humetewa said in her ruling (pdf).
T-Mobile contacted Ward’s medical practice on Jan. 25 to inform them that the House committee sent a subpoena for their phone records for the three-month period from Nov. 1, 2020, to Jan. 31, 2021.
The committee requested information about, among other things, the name, address, email, contact information, authorized users, length of the service, device serial, and ID numbers associated with the account.
Additionally, the committee sought all call, message, IP, and data-connected detail records associated with Ward’s phone number, including all the same information about the phone numbers that communicated with Ward’s phone.
Ward pushed back on this, arguing that would violate their rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, as well as patient confidentiality and other related laws, but the judge dismissed those claims.
She argued that the committee was acting beyond its power. Lawyers for the committee sought to have Ward’s motion dismissed.
Humetewa, in her ruling, noted that the court had limited power in reviewing Congress’s investigative power.
“Although Congress has no enumerated investigative power, the Supreme Court has recognized that each house of Congress has the power ‘to secure needed information’ to legislate,” she wrote.
Ward has argued that the committee lacks legislative authority to carry out its investigations and describes it as a witch hunt targeting supporters of Trump who exercised their First Amendments rights to question the results of the 2020 general elections.
In her lawsuit, Ward had argued that it was public knowledge that Republicans sent a competing slate of electors from Arizona to Washington, D.C., and that “no investigation is necessary to confirm this.” Therefore, according to Ward, the committee’s subpoena was issued to harass her for exercising her First Amendment rights.
But the judge dismissed these arguments, citing and agreeing with a D.C. Circuit Court which had already ruled in another case that the committee has a “valid legislative purpose.”
Humetewa, the first female American Indian appointed to the federal bench, previously ruled against the Wards in a case that made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Wards have reportedly filed an appeal against the latest unfavorable ruling from Judge Humetewa.
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