To catch you up: Adelita Grijalva was elected to the House of Representatives in a special Arizona election, 3 weeks ago. Speaker Mike Johnson is dragging his feet in swearing her in to her seat. His stated reason is that he can’t do so during the shutdown; this is a lie. The actual reason is that she will be the 218th signatory to the discharge petition calling for the release of the Epstein files.
How can she get Johnson to do his job? Does she have to go to court?
A sworn-in member would have to move a Point of Order that she should be seated.
Which can only happen when the House is in session, I presume.
Yep. I think they next meet as a body on Saturday.
Compounding the issue is that Johnson has sworn in Republican members when the House has not been in session (including this year). When pressed on this, he feebly said that that was because they’d already made the appointment and had their families present.
Arizona’s Attorney General is preparing to sue to have Grijalva rightfully seated.
No, actually it’d been done before (and recently) out of session. Sorry don’t have the cite now but it was on Rachel Maddow (I think).
ETA: I see Superdude has already made the same point.
Here’s a Yahoo article about Jim Jordan being fact-checked on CNN about it.
Fact-checking Jim Jordan essentially consists of checking if his lips are moving.
With the House out of session Adelita Grijalva’s only recourse is to petition the Supreme Court for application to the emergency (‘shadow’) docket to adjudicate whether Mike Johnson refusing to expeditiously swear in the duly elected Representative-Elect Grijalva is dereliction of his duty to ensure fair representation to the voters of Arizona. (I see that the Arizona Attorney General is also threatening litigation on the basis of “Congresswoman Grijalva has been unable to assist constituents impacted by recent flooding disasters in Arizona”, which may give standing or at least vested interest in seeing that Rep-Elect Grijalva is sworn in.) Unfortunately, the Supreme Court’s ‘shadow docket’ is quite packed for, uh, reasons, and even if the court were inclined to weigh against Speaker Johnson’s refusal to follow procedure, they probably will not do so promptly, nor is it clear what recourse Rep-Elect Grijalva would have if Speaker Johnson ignored the Supreme Court’s order since the only real authority over the Speaker of the House is the body of House members itself who would have to vote to remove him from the Speakership (or censure or impeach) and replace him with a new Speaker.
In other words, in all practical sense, Rep-Elect Grijalva has no resource save to appeal to the basic decency and respect for democratic norms of the Republican majority to demand fair treatment for her and the constituents she represents.
Stranger
Good one!
Sen Gallego (D-AZ) was on MSNBC tonight and when asked about this impasse he said “Speaker Johnson is a little creep.”
I’m all for civility but sometimes you gotta call ‘em like you see ‘em.
I mean, that is a more civil observation than anything I’ve said about Johnson in the last month. And, to be frank, the smug little near-smile he always has on his face while declaring the current kurfluffle as a “Democrat shutdown” makes me think he’s getting some kind of perverted sexual pleasure from all of this.
Stranger
In this case, he only had to pretend to be unaware of something, and if there is one area where Gym Jordan excels, it is in looking the other way.
I’ve seem it claimed that although the Constitution says a member shall be sworn in, it doesn’t say by who. Traditionally it’s the Speaker but it doesn’t have to be. Perhaps one of the other Arizona reps would be happy to oblige.
As explained in thread I started in FQ, the House adopted a rule that only the speaker can swear in a member.
What would serve them right, assuming the Dems control the house in 2027, is refuse to swear in any of the Republican members-elect. That would guarantee that Scotus would rule the current rule unconstitutional and that anyone can swear in a member.
A Representative or Senator cannot be impeached as they are legislative officers, not civil officers and they can be removed by a 2/3 vote of their respective House. This was decided by the impeachment of Sen. Blount.
That would be a tough pull (though not impossible) since the Constitution allows the House to make their own rules. They might have to expand upon the ruling in Powell v McCormack and rule that not swearing in a member immediately is excluding the member.
Invalid under the law 2 USC 25.
Oath of Speaker, Members, and Delegates
At the first session of Congress after every general election of Representatives, the oath of office shall be administered by any Member of the House of Representatives to the Speaker; and by the Speaker to all the Members and Delegates present, and to the Clerk, previous to entering on any other business; and to the Members and Delegates who afterward appear, previous to their taking their seats.
Although it would make an interesting Constitutional question as SCOTUS typically rules against adding more requirement than the Constitution does. If she does it, it would force the issue.
I stand corrected.
Stranger
The Arizona Attorney General is threatening legal action against Mike Johnson.
From the above link (more specifically, from the letter the Attorney General sent, which can be found at the link):
That’s what I was thinking- wouldn’t the State that she represents part of have to sue? They’re the ones who have standing in Federal courts for that, I’d think.
There is another way of looking at it. Namely that the member-elect is a representative as soon as their state certifies the election. In fact, no other interpretation makes sense since they do elect the speaker. They are required to swear an oath but they are members even before they do. Just as LBJ was considered to be president the minute JFK was declared dead.
They are an elected official representing their district or state but are not able to vote or otherwise act within the body of Congress until being sworn in.
Lyndon B. Johnson was already sworn in as Vice President, and took over as Acting President per Article 2, Section 1, Clause 6:
The 25th Amendment clarifies this as well as providing for a process of filling a vacancy in the Office of the Vice President, as well as a process for transfer in the case that they declare themselves “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” (Section 3), or are adjudicated by the “ Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” (Section 4):
Inauguration and swearing of the Vice President into a vacancy confirms that they are the permanent President but they essentially have all powers and authority of the Presidency while they are the Acting President.
Stranger