Arizona sues over Mike Johnson’s refusal to swear in Democrats’ newest congresswoman

CNN

By Holmes Lybrand, CNN

(CNN) — Arizona’s attorney general has sued the US House of Representatives over Republican Speaker Mike Johnson’s refusal to seat an Arizona member of Congress – who was elected in late September – due to the government shutdown.

“This case is about whether someone duly elected to the House,” Kris Mayes and other attorneys wrote in the filing Tuesday, “may be denied her rightful office simply because the Speaker has decided to keep the House out of ‘regular session.’”

Johnson has said he is “following the Pelosi precedent” in not administering the oath of office to Adelita Grijalva, noting that when Republicans had won similar special elections, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi waited until lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill following periods of recess.

In a news conference Monday, Johnson said that Grijalva won her race after the House “had already gone out of session.”

“So I will administer the oath to her on the first day we come back [to] legislative session,” Johnson said. “I’m willing and anxious to do that.”

Moments after the lawsuit was filed, the speaker dismissed the effort as “patently absurd” and a bid for publicity.

“We run the House. She has no jurisdiction. We’re following the precedent,” he told reporters as he left the Capitol. “She’s looking for national publicity. Apparently she’s gotten some of it, but good luck with that.”

Grijalva told CNN on Tuesday that she is trying to schedule a meeting with Johnson before she leaves town to go back to her district on Thursday to put an end to their back and forth and try to convince him to swear her in.

“I am going to try to schedule an appointment and just sort of sit down to say this back and forth is not good. It’s not healthy. It’s, you know, a clap back here and there. It’s not something that I want,” Grijalva said in an office interview, adding that in the 28 days since winning her election, she has never spoken to Johnson.

The lawsuit argues that “the Constitution does not give that authority to the Speaker—or anyone else” to delay Grijalva’s appointment.

The lawsuit accuses Johnson of delaying Grijalva’s swearing in because he is attempting to prevent a petition that would force a vote in the House on releasing records around Jeffrey Epstein as well as “strengthen his hand in the ongoing budget and appropriations negotiations.”

The Constitution, Mayes argues, requires elected members to be sworn in if they meet the standard qualification, which Grijalva does, the lawsuit says.

“If the House wishes to remove a member for other reasons, it must first seat the member, then expel by a two-thirds vote,” the lawsuit states, adding that “the Constitution does not specify who must administer the oath, only that Representatives must take it.”

Johnson, Mayes says, “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.”

The Arizona attorney general also accused Johnson of arbitrarily delaying Grijalva’s seating since he does not dispute her qualifications or her election, adding there is “no practical reason why he is unable to administer the oath.”

The lawsuit, filed in Washington, DC’s federal court, also argues that Johnson’s refusal to seat Grijalva injures both the elected congresswoman, by preventing her from doing her job, and the people of Arizona by being down a member to represent their interests.

Mayes is asking that a judge decide that if Johnson refuses to swear Grijalva in, another person qualified to administer oaths be allowed to do so for the new congresswoman.

This story is updated with additional details. CNN’s Keely Aouga, Sarah Ferris, Annie Grayer and Ellis Kim contributed to this report.

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CNN’s Keely Aouga, Sarah Ferris, Annie Grayer and Ellis Kim contributed to this report.