The Court Says No: Katie Nash Loses Her Stay
Katie Nash went to court to make the rules stop applying to her. On Wednesday, the court declined.
In the Circuit Court for Frederick County, Judge Julia Minner heard arguments on Nash’s motion to stay the City of Frederick Ethics Commission’s May 11 Opinion and Order — the 61-page ruling that fined the council member $1,000 and ordered her to cease and desist from city business touching data centers and energy. Nash, representing herself, asked the court to freeze the commission’s order while she pursues judicial review. The judge said no. Nash failed the four-part test courts apply to stays, including the first and most important part: showing she is likely to win the underlying appeal. She was unable to present evidence to carry it.
The order stands. The fine stands. The cease-and-desist stands.
This is the sequel to a story this publication told in May, when the Ethics Commission dropped its opinion and order on the council member — then the Council President — and it was not a close call. Three violations of the city ethics ordinance: participating in matters where she held a financial interest, holding outside employment that impaired her impartiality, and using the prestige of her elected office for private gain. The commission found that Nash, a working lobbyist whose disclosure forms listed Vistra, Amazon Web Services, and Jenoptik among her clients, spent 2023 and 2024 steering the city’s data-center policy while her employer and clients stood to benefit from it.
