The Supreme Court has ruled the House Jan. 6 Select Committee can get access to the phone records of their political rival, Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward and her husband.
The brief order rejects the request for a stay and an injunction by Ward, clearing the way for House Jan. 6 Select Committee and Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., to move forward to getting the Wards' phone records from T-Mobile, their phone carrier.
The records are sought in order to investigate the mechanics of challenging the 2020 presidential election before Jan. 6, The Hill reported.The order was not signed, but it did note conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito were in support of the requests for an injunction to protect Ward's phone records from their political rivals.
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan on Wednesday temporarily blocked obtaining Ward's phone records while the court further assessed the dispute.
"The application for stay and injunction presented to Justice Kagan and by her referred to the Court is denied," Monday's ruling read. "The order heretofore entered by Justice Kagan is vacated.
"Justice Thomas and Justice Alito would grant the application for stay and injunction."
Ward's lawyers argued that providing the committee with access to her telephone and text message records would violate the constitutional right to free association by giving the lawmakers access to names of Republican party members who spoke with her.
U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa in Arizona on Sept. 22 backed the subpoena, finding Ward provided no evidence to support her claims that producing the records would chill such rights or result in harassment of those who interacted with her. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 22 declined to put the subpoena on hold while Ward appealed.
Kagan had temporarily put the subpoena on hold Oct. 28 while the full court decided how to proceed. Kagan is the justice assigned to handle certain emergency requests from a group of states including Arizona.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.