The public is entitled to see what is in the divorce records of Ruben and Kate Gallego – at least, most of it.
In a unanimous decision late Thursday, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals rejected claims by the couple that Yavapai County Superior Court Judge John Napper exceeded his authority in granting the bid by a conservative online publication to unseal the records of the 2016 breakup between Ruben, a member of Congress, and Kate who is the mayor of Phoenix.

Ruben’s campaign press aide Hannah Goss, released a written statement late Thursday that she said came from both him and his former wife, blaming the lawsuit on Kari Lake, who is Ruben’s Republican foe in the race for the U.S. Senate. Goss accused her of trying “to score a cheap political point – even if it means endangering the privacy and well-being of our young son.”

But the lawsuit seeking to unseal the records came not from Lake but instead the The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative online publication. And while Lake clearly sees all this as being to her advantage – she has released social media posts about the divorce and Ruben’s attempt to keep the records sealed – Goss produced absolutely no evidence to show that the GOP candidate is in any way connected.

The new ruling is probably not the last word. While neither Goss nor the couple’s attorneys would comment, there is likely to be an appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court.

More to the point, that appeal may also seek an immediate stay of the appellate court ruling that the files – with certain redactions – be publicly available. And that could delay final resolution past the Nov. 5 election.

But attorneys for the Beacon are going to fight that. They have made it clear that they want this information released as soon as possible with early voting having already started on Wednesday.

“At stake here is the right of the press to inform the public and voters’ rights to be informed about a candidate prior to the election, with time to digest and process the information,” the lawyers for the Beacon told the court.

And it’s not just about Ruben and his bid to move to the Senate. Kate is running for another term as Phoenix mayor.

What is in those papers and what the couple wants to keep out of public purview remains unknown. Their own plea to the Court of Appeals itself was filed under seal.

All this is the result of the couple, who were living in Maricopa County at the time, deciding to file for divorce in 2016 in Yavapai County.

In the new ruling, appellate Judge Brian Furuya, a 2021 appointee of former Gov. Doug Ducey, writing for the court, acknowledged that the couple had convinced a Yavapai County judge who handled the case – not Napper – to seal the records entirely. That judge found at the time that “the privacy interests of the parties outweighs the general open records policy.”

Those records remained sealed – as did even any evidence on a court docket – until the Washington Free Beacon learned of them and sought to view copies.

Furuya said Napper was correct in concluding in August that the original order sealing the records was improper.

Napper did agree to let Ruben and Kate provide a list of items that should be redacted before the files were made public.

The judge accepted some of them, what Furuya described as designed “to protect the privacy interest of their financial information and the best interests of their minor child.” But he rejected others, leading the couple to seek appellate court review.

In the appeal, the couple pointed to that 2016 decision to seal the records, arguing that this status quo should have been maintained. Furuya, however, said the Arizona Rule of Family Law Procedure, which governs such things says that they, as the party, must show “overriding current or continuing circumstances that justify maintaining sealed status.”

“Past circumstances are not relevant to their present objection to The Free Beacon’s request to unseal the record,” the appellate judge wrote. What that means, he said, is the 2016 order did not require Napper to make written findings about why he no longer found the order sealing the records appropriate.

But the bigger issue, says Furuya, is that Napper did not abuse his discretion when he rejected certain redactions sought by the couple.

“To begin with, the state of Arizona presumes court records are available to the public,” he wrote. “The burden is on a party opposing a motion to unseal to demonstrate why the records should not be unsealed.”

In this case, the appellate judge wrote, that meant the couple had to show “continuing or new overriding circumstances to prohibit access to court documents or any portions thereof.”

“They did not meet that burden,” Furuya wrote.

He did point out that Napper did agree to some redactions, not all the couple wanted, to protect the interests of their child “along with some of their financial information.”

“The (trial) court properly exercised its discretion by narrowly tailoring what is to be withheld from public view for those legitimate purposes,” Furuya said.

“We have long put our child before all else and will continue to do so,” the couple said in the prepared statement. “It is shameful that Lake, her allies, and those who amplify her cruelty refuse to respect two people who are just trying to raise a beautiful boy together.”

Lake has made the divorce a point in her campaign, even arguing that Ruben filed for divorce when Kate was nine months’ pregnant. And the fight over the release of the records has only amplified the comments by Lake, who has consistently trailed him in polling.

“The people have a right to know what Ruben has done and who Ruben really is,” she said in an Instagram post. “What are you hiding, Ruben Gallego?”

There is no question but that the Beacon has a web site filled with stories critical of Democrats. It even has a list of “Enemies of Freedom,” including Barack Obama.

But there is no mention of Lake in the legal filings that the Beacon made with the Court of Appeals. Instead, its attorney said it is simply a matter of the public’s right to know.

“The Free Beacon seeks the release of court documents that reflect the character and behavior of a public figure holding and running for federal office, and one official who currently holds executive authority over one of the nation’s largest cities,” the attorneys told the court.

And Lake, in her own social media posts, has denied any role in the fight to unseal the records.

“But Ruben’s reaction to it means that whatever is about to come out about his behavior during the divorce is very bad,” she said.

Ruben himself has already disclosed in a memoir that he was dealing with post traumatic stress syndrome after serving in the Marines from 2002 to 2006. That was before he proposed to Kate Widland at the 2008 Democratic Convention where both were volunteers for the Obama campaign. They wed two years later, the same year he was first elected to the state House.

Four years later he won his bid for Congress.

He also wrote about the breakup, fueled not only by his PTSD but the anticipated arrival of a son.

“Eventually we both came to the point where we realized we had grown apart from each other in many ways,” Ruben wrote. “We separated when she was still a few months from giving birth.”

Whatever the issues were between them at that time, they appear to have healed.

Kate, who has been Phoenix mayor since 2019, is more than his partner in the legal bid to keep the records sealed. She also is a political supporter.

“I know first-hand his commitment to building a brighter future for Arizona,” she said in a statement last December released by Ruben’s campaign.

“We have real challenges facing our state that require a leader who is dedicated to fighting for working families and the most vulnerable,” she said. “He’ll do an excellent job working for all of us as our next senator.”

Ruben has since remarried to Sydney Barron who was working for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and now is employed by the National Association of Realtors. Kate has not.