AG Campbell asks SJC to toss out DiZoglio lawsuit on auditing the Legislature 

Attorney General Andrea Campbell has a message for the state auditor: Don't run to the high court without the AG's permission.

In a court filing Thursday, Campbell asked the Supreme Judicial Court to toss out a lawsuit Auditor Diana DiZoglio filed last week. DiZoglio is looking to force the Massachusetts House and Senate to hand over documents as part of an audit of their inner workings.

Massachusetts voters approved a ballot question last year to give DiZoglio the power to audit the Legislature. But lawmakers have resisted turning over records to her, and the Campbell so far has not agreed to take legal action against the Legislature on the auditor's behalf.

In the latest court filing, Campbell argues that DiZoglio violated “settled law” when she bypassed the attorney general to file her legal challenge with the SJC.

Campbell said her office is the “gatekeeper empowered to determine when, if ever, the Commonwealth’s intragovernmental legal disputes require 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. Were such suits permissible, the Commonwealth, which has heretofore spoken with one voice in litigation, would be rendered a babel of voices with competing interests, many on the docket of this Court,” she said.

DiZoglio, a former state lawmaker who has regularly clashed with legislative leaders, has repeatedly sought Campbell's approval to take the House and Senate to court or to appoint an independent special assistant attorney general to oversee a lawsuit forcing the Legislature to comply.

In declining to approve legal action, Campbell claimed DiZoglio has not answered basic questions about the scope of her planned audit and the legal arguments she plans to use in a court action. Campbell has also questioned whether it's a breach of the state constitution for DiZoglio to audit the Legislature.

Lawmakers contend any audit of their inner workings violates separation-of-powers principles under the state constitution.

But DiZoglio pressed forward last week with her lawsuit without Campbell’s permission, arguing the attorney general “acted arbitrarily and capriciously, or scandalously” by declining to greenlight court action against the Legislature.

In her court filing, DiZoglio said Campbell’s “repeated questions and irrelevant hypotheticals effectively obstructed” the auditor’s office's ability to obtain documents from the Legislature through litigation.

The auditor’s lawsuit asks the SJC to order House Speaker Ron Mariano, Senate President Karen Spilka and the clerks of both legislative branches to turn over budgets, past financial audits, monetary transactions and settlement agreements.

DiZoglio's legal challenge also calls on the court to appoint a special assistant attorney general to the Office of the State Auditor to oversee further legal action.

Campbell said in her filing that the attorney general’s office has a “longstanding policy” of rarely approving legal disputes between different parts of state government.

Otherwise, Campbell said, “weighty issues concerning the structure of government” would arrive in court undeveloped, and filing a lawsuit “could become more political exercise than serious legal endeavor, wasting judicial and taxpayer resources.”

Andrew Carden, DiZoglio’s director of operations, said the office first learned about Campbell’s effort to strike down their case when contacted by WBUR for a response Friday morning. But Carden said the Auditor's Office is "not at all surprised" by Campbell's attempt.

DiZoglio wants the SJC to allow Shannon Liss-Riordan, a well-known local labor attorney, to represent the auditor's office in the lawsuit. Liss-Riordan ran against Campbell unsuccessfully in the 2022 Democratic primary for attorney general.

"We hope the SJC stands with the 72% of people who passed this issue into law by allowing Attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan to represent our office in court, since the AG is working against our efforts to audit the Legislature,” Carden said in a statement.

In Thursday’s court filing, Campbell said her office has told DiZoglio “countless times” the legislative audit could require court action in the future.

“But it is essential that any such litigation is well considered, with a complete distillation of the underlying issues, and filed as a last resort," Campbell said. "The Office of the State Auditor has chosen political theater instead."