Beacon Hill News

State’s Highest Court Sets Deadline for AG in DiZoglio Audit Case

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Dizoglio ‘Grateful’ And Campbell Says Auditor Provided Court ‘Clarity And Commitments That We Have Been Seeking’
By Colin A. Young

A day after signaling they wanted to see an end to the bitter back-and-forth, justices of the Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday gave Attorney General Andrea J. Campbell 30 days to decide whether she will represent Auditor Diana DiZoglio in her attempt to sue the Legislature. In an order issued after 5 p.m., the court said Campbell “shall make a final determination as to the Auditor’s request for representation” within 30 days as it relates to DiZoglio’s pursuit of claims against the Legislature for alleged failure to respond to four specific requests outlined in a January 2025 memo: the official budgets for each chamber of the Legislature for fiscal years 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024; copies of official audits of each chamber for the same fiscal years; a listing of all transactions related to each chamber’s balance forward line item for those fiscal years; and a list of all monetary settlement agreements entered into by each chamber with any current or former employees or elected members during the same timeframe. “This order moves the process forward and ensures the attorney general must finally make a determination regarding legal representation so the public’s interest is prioritized. We are very grateful to the Supreme Judicial Court members for their timely decision,” DiZoglio, of Methuen, said in a statement Thursday night. Campbell’s office said it would “expeditiously” comply with the court’s order.

Beacon Hill News

Healey Plan Aims to Limit ‘Out of Control’ Youth Social Media Use

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Tech group warns guv’s approach takes a “legally vulnerable path”
By Ella Adams

Less than a week after the House moved to ban social media for users under 14 years old, Gov. Maura Healey proposed her own, “complementary” proposal in an attempt to crack down on youth social media use. Healey tucked language into a $227.3 million supplemental spending bill filed Tuesday afternoon that would require social media platforms to have a “default” setting that disables addictive practices and imposes a two-hour time limit on users under the age of 18. “Kids are spending an average of three and a half hours a day on social media. We know that even with three hours a day spent on social media, kids are twice as likely to suffer from depression and anxiety,” Healey said at a State House press conference. Healey’s proposal would require platforms to implement an age assurance system to determine whether a user is a minor, as well as a review process to allow users to appeal an age designation.

Beacon Hill News

Redrafted Vargas Bill to Protect Immigrant Rights Clears Legislative Committee

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Due Process Safeguards Are Focus of Bill That Could Get Full House Vote Before April’s Annual Budget Debate
By Alison Kuznitz

Legislation spearheaded by Haverhill Rep. Andy X. Vargas to protect immigrants by banning federal agents from making civil arrests at courthouses is clearing a legislative committee, but a vote in the House may still be weeks away as fears continue to swirl over aggressive deportation efforts. The so-called PROTECT Act the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus unveiled in late January served as the “template” for the redrafted measure advancing in the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, House Speaker Ron Mariano said at a press conference Thursday. “This bill doesn’t exist just to make a point,” Vargas said. “It exists so that a family in Haverhill or in Chelsea or in Springfield can go to work, seek justice in court, cooperate with law enforcement without fear, and live in a commonwealth that honors the rights and liberties of our constitution.”

Committee co-chair Rep. Daniel Cahill said the bill will come up for a vote “in the next couple of weeks.” House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz said the measure likely needs to pass through his committee too, with the North End Democrat eyeing a vote before budget deliberations kick off in April. “We’re going to work towards that,” Michlewitz told reporters.

Beacon Hill News

Judge Rejects DiZoglio Bid for Representation In Legislative Audit Case

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Disappointed Auditor Says ‘Court Deck Is Stacked Against the People Right Now’
By Michael P. Norton

In another setback to Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s bid to audit the Legislature, a high court judge on Tuesday denied her motion to obtain a special assistant attorney general to represent her in court. “The State Auditor cites no statute, constitutional provision, or other authority that would permit a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court to appoint a SAAG,” Supreme Judicial Court Judge Dalila Argaez Wendlandt wrote in a two-page ruling. Attorney General Andrea Campbell has chosen to represent House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka in the case, resisting calls from DiZoglio to challenge their refusal to be audited by DiZoglio’s office. “It’s incredibly disappointing that Judge Wendlandt believes access to justice is not for all—and is just for the AG,” DiZoglio told the News Service early Tuesday night. A 2024 law approved by Massachusetts voters authorizes the state auditor to audit the “accounts, programs, activities and functions” of the House and Senate.

Beacon Hill News

Auditor DiZoglio Pushes Back on AG’s Audit Dispute Intervention

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By Katie Castellani

Auditor Diana DiZoglio is once again asking for the court’s permission to hire her own legal representation. This time, it’s to secure defense to dispute the attorney general’s motion to quash DiZoglio’s lawsuit against legislative leaders. On Feb. 19, Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office filed a motion to strike DiZoglio’s lawsuit that seeks to compel lawmakers to comply with a 2024 voter law authorizing her office to audit the Legislature and to allow for a special assistant attorney general to represent her office. Campbell was granted permission to intervene in DiZoglio’s lawsuit as a defendant alongside House Speaker Ron Mariano, Senate President Karen Spilka and the House and Senate clerks.

Beacon Hill News

AG Campbell Moves to Strike Audit Lawsuit, Cites ‘Gatekeeper’ Role

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By Colin A. Young

Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office moved last week to strike Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s lawsuit against legislative leaders, arguing that her office is the only legal “gatekeeper” that decides if or when disputes between branches of government require the court’s involvement. DiZoglio brought the long-simmering issue to the state’s highest court this month by asking a single Supreme Judicial Court justice to grant her permission to hire her own legal representation through the appointment of a special assistant attorney general. Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt on Friday allowed Campbell’s office to intervene in DiZoglio’s suit as a defendant alongside House Speaker Ron Mariano, Senate President Karen Spilka and the House and Senate clerks, according to court records. Campbell’s office also filed a motion last week to strike DiZoglio’s complaint, and that remains under the justice’s advisement. “By statute, the attorney general is a 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,” Campbell’s office wrote.

Beacon Hill News

Letter Names Three Attorneys Who Could Lead Legislative Audit Case

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Auditor’s Office Says Firm Got Ethics Commission Guidance on Boundaries for SAAGS Paid For By Guv Candidate
By Sam Drysdale

As Auditor Diana DiZoglio sues legislative leaders to comply with a voter-approved audit law, her office is also seeking approval to bring on a trio of veteran litigators funded by a Republican gubernatorial candidate to carry the case. In a Jan. 26 letter to the Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office, Deputy Auditor and General Counsel Michael Leung-Tat asked that George Vien, Nicholas Ramacher and Pietro Conte of the Boston firm Donnelly, Conroy & Gelhaar be appointed as special assistant attorneys general (SAAG) to represent the auditor’s office in its dispute with the Legislature. Republican candidate for governor Mike Minogue, who last month gave the Republican State Committee $100,000, offered to sponsor their services. The request for court authorization for SAAG appointments is pending before a Supreme Judicial Court Judge Frank Gaziano as part of DiZoglio’s broader petition that the court has docketed as a “separation of powers” case.

Beacon Hill News

ICE Protesters Get Quick Response from Corner Office

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Union Official Warns ‘It Can Get Worse Very Quickly’
By Ella Adams

In 17-degree weather Thursday morning protesters exited the State House, chanting and calling for lawmakers and Gov. Maura Healey to take “concrete and immediate action” to protect immigrants from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They got a quick answer Thursday afternoon with Healey filing legislation and signing an executive order. Her bill seeks to “keep ICE out of courthouses, schools, child care programs, hospitals and churches,” ban another state from deploying their National Guard into Massachusetts without the governor’s permission, and allow parents to pre-arrange guardianship for their children in case they are deported. The executive order limits new 287(g) agreements between local law enforcement and ICE, and bans the use of state property as an immigration enforcement operations base. What began as an event inside the State House flooded out to the General Hooker entrance and then to the front steps of the building after a smoke alarm went off and caused an evacuation just before 11 a.m.

“Today Minnesota, tomorrow Massachusetts.