PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has filed a lawsuit that seeks to get Democrat Adelita Grijalva sworn in as the state’s newest member of Congress after U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to seat her a month since winning the post.
The Democratic attorney general filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Washington on behalf of Grijalva. It asks a judge to let other people, such as federal judges, who are authorized to administer the oath swear in Grijalva if Johnson has not done so. Mayes has said previously that the delay in giving Grijalva, the first Latina to represent Arizona in Congress, the oath of office leaves over 800,000 people in the southern Arizona district without representation.
Grijalva, a former school board member and member of a county governing board in the Tucson area, easily won a Sept. 23 special election to fill the post previously held by her father, progressive Democrat Raúl Grijalva, who died in March after serving in Congress for more than two decades. She said the delay has left people in her district without the constituent services that are normally provided by congressional offices.
Johnson has said Adelita Grijalva will be sworn in when the House returns to session, blamed the government shutdown for the delay and accused Mayes of seeking publicity when she threatened to file the lawsuit. Johnson said the lawsuit was “patently absurd” and criticized the Arizona attorney general for filing the case. “Good luck with that,” the House speaker said.
Once she is sworn in, Grijalva would narrow the margins and give Democrats more power to confront Trump and the GOP agenda.
Democrats have accused Johnson of delaying Grijalva’s swearing-in because it improves their chances of forcing a vote for the release of the Justice Department files on the sex trafficking investigation into the late Jeffrey Epstein. Johnson has rejected the accusation. Grijalva has pledged to back the effort to release the Epstein investigation documents and would be the last signature needed for a petition to force that vote.
In an interview Tuesday hours before the suit was filed, Grijalva said the delay means she is unable to sign a lease on office space within her district to response to constituent requests. “I don’t have constituents until I’m sworn in,” Grijalva said.
Johnson said Grijalva was elected the week after the House had already gone out of legislative session following its vote on a short-term spending bill to fund the federal government. Christian Fong, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan who specializes in Congressional procedure and organization, said the lawsuit serves to make a messaging point rather than an intention to have substantive effect. He said the lawsuit will have “very little” impact on whether Johnson’s swearing in timeline will shorten. He doesn’t see a very severe violation of House precedents or rules, or Constitutional rules, and he said it is very likely Grijalva is sworn in before the litigation takes its course.
“This is the usual litigiousness that characterizes the relationship between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to elections,” Fong said.
Lawmakers who win special elections generally take the oath of office on days in which legislative business is conducted, and they are welcomed with warm applause from members on both sides of the aisle. They give a short speech as family and friends watch from the galleries.
There is precedent for doing it differently. On April 2, Johnson swore in Republican Reps. Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine, both of Florida, less than 24 hours after they won their special elections, during a pro forma session.
Johnson has said the circumstances were unique because the House had unexpectedly gone out of session that day. Patronis and Fine had already arranged for their families, friends and supporters to be in Washington.
But Johnson also said there is precedent for not yet administering her the oath of office. He noted that Rep. Julia Letlow, a Republican from Louisiana, waited 25 days before her 2021 swearing-in ceremony, filling the seat her late husband was elected to but never filled after dying of COVID-19. At the time, Democrats controlled the House.
