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America’s Future Files Amicus Brief Objecting to Jan 6 Committee Subpoena

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On Friday, October 28, 2022, America’s Future along with four other nonprofit organizations jointly submitted a Motion for Leave to File an Amicus brief with the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) supporting an Emergency Application to Stay a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals order compelling a cell phone carrier, T-Mobile, to comply with a subpoena that demands T-Mobile disclose the personal cell phone account information (e.g. phone call data, voicemails, text messages, contacts, other related records, etc.) of three customers, including Dr. Kelli Ward, the Chairwoman of Arizona’s Republican Party.

The case comes before the SCOTUS as Michael Ward, et al. v Bennie G. Thompson, in His Official Capacity as Chairman of the United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, et al. (“Jan 6. Committee”), SCOTUS Dkt No. 22A350 (2022). The Docket can be found here.

The Emergency Application was filed with the SCOTUS, through counsel, by plaintiffs Drs. Michael and Kelli Ward, husband and wife, along with Mole Medical Services, P.C.

Dr. Kelli Ward is the central focus of the Emergency Application. The Application requests SCOTUS stay the Ninth Circuit order and enjoin T-Mobile from releasing the requested records to the Jan 6 Committee, a partisan ad hoc committee installed by Democrat Party leadership to “investigate” the events of January 6, 2021.

Kelli Ward’s role in the 2020 election in Arizona and its aftermath is a matter of public record. The Jan 6 Committee has not alleged that she was in or even near the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Further, there is no suggestion that she violated any law on January 6.

Here, the Emergency Application maintains that actions of and by the Jan 6 Committee members infringe her First Amendment right to freely associate with others based on political philosophies, political party preference, or for whatever reason.

Kelli Ward is a political opponent of the political party in power; she is actively engaged in political party committees and political activities; and in this politically charged climate, without any good cause stated and not one accusation of wrongdoing by Kelli Ward, it just doesn’t pass the smell test that the Jan 6 Committee cannot perform their legislative duties of oversight without Kelli Wards cell phone records. That notion is preposterous and any member of Congress or government official who argue otherwise is dishonest, disingenuous, and failing the constituents who elected him or her to public office.

We, at America’s Future, support Kelli Ward’s well-reasoned position and arguments put forth to the Court. To that end, we further argue compliance with the subpoena will result in yet another profound chilling effect on free speech in America.

Additionally, our brief objects to the subpoena under Fourth Amendment grounds, in so much as it is an arbitrary and capricious fishing expedition with no valid predicate.

As our brief describes, this subpoena is reminiscent of general warrants used by the British Crown in the early days of America to conduct wholesale searches of the “persons, houses, papers and effects” of original American colonists using “suspicion of wrongdoing” as a pretext to identify which colonists were “disloyal to the Crown.” General warrants and the like are un-American and outlawed. Their purpose and effect advance tyranny and abuse of power under the color of law – conditions unacceptable to Americans.

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