Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes followed through Tuesday on her threat to sue House Speaker Mike Johnson for not swearing in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva.
Ms. Mayes filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. with Ms. Grijalva and the state of Arizona listed as the plaintiffs.
Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, is not named directly as a defendant in the lawsuit against the House of Representatives, but he is mentioned several times in the 17-page complaint.
“Speaker Mike Johnson is actively stripping the people of Arizona of one of their seats in Congress and disenfranchising the voters of Arizona’s seventh Congressional district in the process,” Ms. Mayes said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
“By blocking Adelita Grijalva from taking her rightful oath of office, he is subjecting Arizona’s seventh Congressional district to taxation without representation,” she said. “I will not allow Arizonans to be silenced or treated as second-class citizens in their own democracy.”
Ms. Grijalva, once sworn in, is set to become the 218th and final signatory needed on a discharge petition to force a vote on a measure that would compel the Justice Department to release its case files in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case.
The lawsuit accuses Mr. Johnson of delaying Ms. Grijalva’s swearing in to prevent her from signing the discharge petition and “to strengthen his hand in the ongoing budget and appropriations negotiations.”
Mr. Johnson called the lawsuit “patently absurd” and accused Ms. Mayes of “looking for national publicity.”
“We run the House. She has no jurisdiction,” he said. “We’re following the precedent.”
The precedent the speaker was referring to is that lawmakers elected during special elections are typically sworn in when the House next convenes for a regular legislative session.
Ms. Grijalva was elected on Sept. 23 to replace her late father, Raul Grijalv,a as the representative for Arizona’s 7th congressional district.
The House has been in recess since Sept. 19 after passing a stopgap bill to fund the government through Nov. 21.
Mr. Johnson has said he will not call the chamber back into session until the Senate votes for that bill to reopen the government, which has been shut down for three weeks.
Ms. Mayes’ lawsuit argues that the speaker does not have the authority to deny Ms. Grijalva her rightful office because he has decided to keep the House out of regular session.
“If the Speaker were granted that authority, he could thwart the peoples’ choice of who should represent them in Congress by denying them representation for a significant portion of the two-year term provided by the Constitution,” the lawsuit reads.
The filing notes that Mr. Johnson has for weeks denied Ms. Grijalva’s requests to be administered the oath of office, even though he at one point said he would do it as soon as Ms. Grijalva wanted.
“The Speaker may not use his statutory obligation to administer the oath under 2 U.S.C. § 25 to arbitrarily delay seating a member when there is no dispute as to the election or qualifications and no practical reason why he is unable to administer the oath,” the lawsuit says.
House Democrats have petitioned to have Ms. Grijalva sworn in during one of the pro forma sessions held every three days while the chamber is on recess but have been rebuffed at every opportunity.
The lawsuit notes that Mr. Johnson swore in Florida GOP Reps. Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine during an April 2 pro forma session, the day after their special elections.
Mr. Johnson has said that date was chosen for the swearing in because it was scheduled as a regular session day. When that session was later canceled, he proceeded with the swearing-in during the pro forma session because the lawmakers’ families were already gathered in Washington for the ceremony.
The lawsuit argues that the court is not bound by House rules or precedents but noted that during Mr. Johnson’s tenure as speaker, winners of special elections have always been “sworn in immediately upon unofficial notification of the results.”
“Arizona’s right to full congressional representation and Ms. Grijalva’s right to hold office are not limited to those times when the Speaker decides the House will be in ‘regular session,’” the filing says.
Ms. Grijalva’s delayed swearing in denies her “the ability to exercise the authority of a member of the House — e.g., to sign petitions, sponsor bills, obtain and provide information to her constituents about federal programs and matters pending before federal agencies, and advocate with federal agencies, all on behalf of her constituents,” the lawsuit says.
Ms. Grijalva said at a press conference earlier Tuesday that she does not have access to an office budget or many official House resources needed to provide service to her constituents.
She said she is grateful for House administrators providing some access in the past week, as she received keys to her office and later a House email address and passwords for government computers.
“They’re trying to provide piecemeal solutions to some of the problems that we have, but respectfully, there’s so much that cannot be done until I’m sworn in,” Ms. Grijalva said.
