Arizona Supreme Court rejects GOP request to invalidate mail voting

[gratuitous]

5. My reading is that they petitioned the state Supreme Court directly

That sort of filing (at least in Oregon) requires a showing of extraordinary urgency to skip the lower courts. It sounds like the state Supreme Court didn't think the Republicans' direct petition satisfied that requirement. In essence, the Republicans wanted to go directly to the end instead of starting at square one. The Supreme Court told them they had gone about this wrongly, and to start from square one.

It's good in that a final decision on their petition is postponed, probably until after the 2022 election. Unless, of course, the Republicans demand some kind of expedited decisions from the lower courts so they can get to the state Supreme Court faster, and whether the Arizona state courts will accommodate them or not is the question we're left with. I think the Supreme Court has issued this decision in a way that signals the lower courts that they should take their time to thoroughly brief the matter and consider their decisions carefully. At least, that's my wholly-uninformed optimistic take.