Arizona AG Sues House Over Speaker Johnson’s Refusal to Swear In Grijalva

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) has formally filed a lawsuit against the House of Representatives over Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-Louisiana) refusal to seat Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Arizona).

Grijalva won a special election exactly one month ago. Yet she has not yet been granted access to her seat or offices in Washington, with Johnson arguing that she shouldn’t be sworn in because the House is technically out of session.

Johnson is refusing to end the House’s current recess until the government shutdown ends. It’s possible that Johnson is refusing to seat Grijalva now because hers is the last vote needed to force a vote on releasing federal files on accused child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, who once had a close relationship with President Donald Trump.

Johnson denies those accusations, and claims he is following a standard set by former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California), who refused to seat three Republican lawmakers during a congressional recess during her tenure.

However, as speaker himself, Johnson allowed two Republican lawmakers to be sworn in earlier this year while the House was out of session, upending the old standard and establishing a new one.

Mayes doesn’t explicitly name Speaker Johnson as a defendant; rather, the suit seeks relief against the House of Representatives itself, as well as the House Clerk and Sergeant at Arms. Nevertheless, the suit points out that Johnson has chosen to exclude Grijalva thus far.

“This case is about whether someone duly elected to the House — who indisputably meets the constitutional qualifications of the office — may be denied her rightful office simply because the Speaker has decided to keep the House out of ‘regular session,'” Mayes wrote in her lawsuit, warning that, if Johnson has that authority, it could create a dangerous precedent, allowing him or future speakers to “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.”

Mayes’s lawsuit further notes that “Speaker Johnson has been in the Capitol during this time and has not identified any reason that he (or a designee) is unable to administer the oath to Ms. Grijalva,” and that he “has not identified any valid reason for refusing to promptly seat” her yet.

The lawsuit adds:

Defendants’ refusal to promptly seat Ms. Grijalva, and to treat her as a member of the House, injures her by denying 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. Defendants’ refusal to promptly seat Ms. Grijalva, and to treat her as a member of the House, likewise injures the State of Arizona, which is denied the number of Representatives provided for by law.

The lawsuit also notes that, technically, the Constitution doesn’t require the speaker of the House to swear anyone in, just that a lawmaker be administered the oath of office once elected. The suit requests that, should Johnson continue refusing to swear Grijalva in, a judge allow for someone else in Congress to administer her oath.

Beyond being unable to vote on behalf of her constituents as a member of the House, Grijalva is being denied access to her offices and other congressional resources that elected lawmakers typically receive. Johnson chastised Grijalva earlier this week for trying to raise awareness about the situation on social media, saying, “instead of doing TikTok videos, she should be serving her constituents” — something she cannot feasibly do until she’s an official representative.

On Tuesday, Grijalva said she is trying to meet directly with Johnson.

“I am going to try to schedule an appointment and just sort of sit down to say this back and forth is not good,” she said. “It’s not healthy. It’s, you know, a clap back here and there. It’s not something that I want.”