Arizona's Supreme Court sided with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake on Wednesday in ruling that court records from the 2016 divorce of her Democratic opponent, Rep. Ruben Gallego, and his ex-wife, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, be unsealed.
In a hotly contested political fight that saw both Gallegos plead their case to the state's highest court keep the details of their divorce sealed, the Arizona Supreme Court agreed with Lake's argument that the case is a matter of public record. The redacted versions of the court filing will be released just ahead of the Nov. 8 election.
The ruling favors the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative newspaper that filed the lawsuit to open the case, making the argument that Arizona typically does not seal divorce records. The newspaper also argued that as political figures, the Gallegos are subject to more public scrutiny.
"They reached the right decision," Michael Edney, a lawyer for the newspaper, told AZCentral. "Frankly, Congressman Gallego's position that all this should be kept away from the public was never legally supported, and was advocating for a special privilege for politicians that the rest of us don't have."
The Gallegos argued that their divorce records contain sensitive information about how the former couple "planned to raise and co-parent their child." Lake maintains that her opponent's efforts were designed to cover up what has been characterized as a contentious divorce.
Lake is using the case to criticize her opponent, saying he has spent "nearly $1m so you can't see why he served his 1st wife divorce papers at Christmas-time when she was 9 months pregnant," Lake said in an X post. "Arizona deserves to know what he's hiding."
Gallego, who leads Lake in the polls, said in a joint statement with his ex-wife: "Kari Lake will stop at nothing to score cheap political points—even if it means endangering the privacy and well-being of our young son. We have long put our child before all else and will continue to do so."
