BOSTON — Attorney General Andrea Campbell won't help audit the Massachusetts Legislature. She won't let anyone else do it either. And now she's asking the state's highest court to make sure nobody can try without her permission.

In a court filing this week, Campbell's office argued that if the Supreme Judicial Court allows State Auditor Diana DiZoglio's lawsuit against legislative leaders to proceed, it will "dramatically undermine the role of the attorney general as manager of the state's legal strategy."

Translation: Campbell wants to be the only person in Massachusetts who can decide whether the Legislature gets taken to court — and she's already decided the answer is no.

In November 2024, 72% of Massachusetts voters approved a ballot question giving DiZoglio's office the authority to audit the Legislature. It wasn't close.

The Legislature refused to comply. Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka blocked the audit at every turn.

DiZoglio asked Campbell — the state's top lawyer — to represent her office in a lawsuit to force compliance. Campbell refused.

That's when Campbell showed up — not to help DiZoglio, but to help the Speaker.

Campbell's office filed a motion to strike DiZoglio's lawsuit entirely, arguing that the auditor has no standing to bring the case without the AG's involvement. She simultaneously submitted letters to the SJC on behalf of Mariano and Spilka requesting dismissal.

Now Campbell is going further. Her latest filing argues that if the SJC allows DiZoglio to sue on her own, it would set a precedent where any state official could bypass the AG and drag the Legislature into court whenever they wanted.

"The resulting incentives will regularly ensnare the Judiciary in intragovernmental disputes," Campbell's office wrote. There would be "little incentive for a state official to engage with the attorney general's office" and officials could "file suit at any time and force the expenditure of judicial and taxpayer resources."

In other words: if you let DiZoglio do this, everyone will want to.

The practical effect is simpler: if the SJC agrees with Campbell, no state official can sue the Legislature without the AG's blessing. And since the AG has made clear she's siding with the Speaker, the voter-approved audit dies.

DiZoglio's brief is due to the SJC by April 22. Oral arguments are scheduled for May 6.

The case will determine whether 72% of voters actually have the power they thought they were exercising when they approved the audit — or whether one elected official can override all of them by simply refusing to act.