Arizona’s GOP leaders have a habit of losing in court. They also have a habit of sending taxpayers the bill. Since 2022, the Legislature has shelled out more than $5.1 million on outside lawyers — most of it defending unconstitutional laws, failed election restrictions, or partisan pet projects.
These numbers run through June 2025, when we submitted public records requests to the House and Senate.
The spike in legal spending came in 2023 and 2024, under Gov. Katie Hobbs and President Joe Biden — years that fueled Republican ire and spurred the Legislature to lean heavily on private firms instead of the Democratic Attorney General’s Office. Costs jumped from under $100,000 in 2022 to more than $1 million annually during that stretch.
