Correction: An earlier version of this headline referred to the Attorney General as "her own AG," implying AG Andrea Campbell was appointed by Governor Healey. The Attorney General is an independently elected statewide office. The headline has been updated.
BOSTON — One of the judges overseeing the legal battle over whether the Massachusetts Legislature will ever be audited has a detail in her biography that most outlets mention in passing — if they mention it at all.
Justice Gabrielle Wolohojian was appointed to the Supreme Judicial Court in 2024 by Governor Maura Healey. The two had a years-long romantic relationship. Healey appointed her anyway.
Now Wolohojian is one of the justices pressing AG Andrea Campbell — Healey's attorney general — to stop dragging her feet on the very audit Healey's administration has resisted at every turn.
On Wednesday, the SJC heard oral arguments in the latest chapter of the years-long fight between State Auditor Diana DiZoglio and legislative leadership over a voter-approved audit of the Legislature. 72% of Massachusetts voters backed the audit in 2024. Not a single audit has been performed.
Wolohojian didn't mince words.
"Perhaps, would it not make more sense... that the AG identify what it would be willing to proceed with rather than continuing to ask the same questions and continuing to get the same kinds of responses," she said from the bench.
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Then came the line that summed up the entire saga: "It seems to me that a deadline would have to be set by which the attorney general would fish or cut bait, to use a common phrase."
How we got here
DiZoglio has been trying to audit the Legislature since voters overwhelmingly approved the measure in 2024. Legislative leaders — Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano — have fought it. Campbell's office has refused to represent DiZoglio in court against legislative leadership while also denying her request to hire outside counsel.
In February, DiZoglio sued Spilka, Mariano, and their clerks. Campbell responded with a motion to dismiss.
The result: the auditor elected to audit the Legislature can't audit it, the AG elected to enforce the law won't enforce this one, and the voters who approved it by a 3-to-1 margin are watching the whole thing stall in court — as reported by the State House News Service.
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The conflict nobody wants to talk about
Justices Scott Kafker and Dalila Wendlandt backed Wolohojian's push for deadlines, noting the "extreme public interest" in resolving the dispute. The AG's office said it would need about 30 days.
DiZoglio's attorney, Shannon Liss-Reardon, welcomed the pressure: "The state auditor would welcome a definitive answer from the attorney general so we can all know how to proceed."
The justices adjourned without issuing a formal order. But the message was clear enough.
The governor who opposes the audit appointed her ex-girlfriend to the court now overseeing it. The AG the governor installed is the one blocking it. And the auditor the voters elected to do it is stuck suing everyone just to do her job.
72% of voters asked for this. Two years later, they're still waiting.
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