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DiZoglio files emergency motion after AG Campbell moves to strike down audit lawsuit
State Auditor Diana DiZoglio sued legislative leaders recently in an attempt to force their compliance with an audit.
The standoff between State Auditor Diana DiZoglio and Attorney General Andrea Campbell over the former’s attempts to audit the state Legislature continued this week. DiZoglio filed an emergency motion with the state’s highest court, responding to a recent attempt from Campbell to strike the auditor’s lawsuit against legislative leaders.
DiZoglio sued legislative leaders earlier this month, asking a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court to compel the lawmakers to comply with an audit. The escalation came about 15 months after nearly 72 percent of Massachusetts voters approved of a ballot measure specifying that the state auditor has the authority to audit the Legislature.
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By law, Campbell represents the state in all court matters. But she has repeatedly declined to get involved, saying that DiZoglio’s office has refused to provide answers to straightforward questions about a potential audit.
House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka have also continuously rebuffed DiZoglio’s efforts, arguing that the audit she is planning could violate state law regarding the separation of powers and voicing concerns about privacy.
Campbell responded to DiZoglio’s lawsuit by saying that the auditor does not have the authority to file it. She said that it was not about enforcing the law, but rather a “ploy to sidestep the required approval of my office.”
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Campbell’s office moved to strike the lawsuit last week, arguing that her office is the “gatekeeper” that is empowered to determine when the state’s intergovernmental legal disputes require a judicial resolution.
“There would be no gate at all were mere disagreement with the Attorney General sufficient basis for a dissenting state official to initiate a lawsuit,” Campbell’s office wrote.
On Wednesday, DiZoglio filed an emergency motion in response. In it, she argues that Campbell has a conflict of interest that justifies the appointment of a special assistant attorney general to represent DiZoglio’s office. The motion also asks for more time to respond to Campbell’s move to strike, so that a special assistant attorney general can be appointed to respond on DiZoglio’s behalf.
“Attorney General Campbell has abdicated her duty to defend the public interest,” DiZoglio said in a statement. “Democracy is under attack and the people deserve an answer from the courts. AG Campbell claims I am a ‘dissenting state official’ and that she is the ‘gatekeeper’ to the courts, but those gates were never meant to be locked to the people. Gatekeeping justice isn’t leadership. It’s obstruction. The courts belong to the people, not the politicians, so yes — I dissent.”
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Meanwhile, Spilka and Mariano are maintaining their adversarial stances. In a live interview with MASSterlist columnist Jon Keller this week, Spilka called DiZoglio a “headline hunter,” while Mariano said that some of the auditor’s behavior amounted to “bullying,” per State House News Service.
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