U.S. Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva and Attorney General Kris Mayes filed suit Tuesday against the U.S. House of Representatives for failing to swear Grijalva in and give her full access to the congressional post she won in an election last month.
In the 17-page complaint, the pair, both Democrats, accuse Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson of arbitrarily and illegally failing to seat her so she can represent her 813,000 constituents in the district that stretches from Douglas and Nogales through much of Tucson, west to Yuma and into the Phoenix suburb of Buckeye.
There was no immediate response from Johnson.
But the speaker has repeatedly insisted there is no requirement to swear her in because the House is currently not in session. When previously asked about the threat of a lawsuit, he said, βyet another Democrat politician from Arizona is trying to get publicity.ββ
Johnson has said he will swear her in once the House goes back into session.
He has refused to let that happen because the government is shut down while the Senate debates a House-passed βcontinuing resolutionββ for funding. While Republicans control the Senate, as they do the House, Senate rules require 60 votes for approval, allowing minority Democrats to block the move while they seek changes over funding for health care.
Lawyers for Grijalva and Mayes say there is no legal validity for Johnsonβs excuse that Grijalva canβt be sworn in simply because he wonβt bring members back for a regular session.
βIf the speaker were granted that authority, he could thwart the peoplesβ 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,ββ the lawsuit says.
βFortunately, the Constitution does not give that authority to the speaker β or anyone else,ββ the lawyers argue. βRather, the Constitution leaves the House without authority to exclude any person, duly elected by his constituents, who meets all the requirements for membership expressly prescribed in the Constitution.ββ
There is no question that, at some point, Grijalva will be sworn in.
She was chosen by voters in a special election called after the death of her father, RaΓΊl Grijalva, who had represented the congressional district for more than two decades. She defeated Republican Daniel Butierez with nearly 69% of the vote.
Johnson has insisted he is following precedent set before he became speaker.
But he also admitted that, at his direction, two Republicans chosen in special elections earlier this year were sworn in at pro-forma β informal β House sessions. He has insisted that was different.
Adelita Grijalva and Mayes are telling a judge there may be a political reason for the delay.
They said they believe Johnson wants to prevent Grijalva from signing a βdischarge petitionββ to bring a bipartisan measure to the House floor for the U.S. Department of Justice to publicly disclose βall unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materialsββ it has related to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein or his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.
There are currently 217 signatures on the petition. It needs 218, with Grijalva saying she will be the final vote needed.
Johnson has denied thatβs a factor.
βThis has zero to do with Epstein,ββ he told reporters.
Whatever the motive, the lawsuit asks the judge to issue an order that Grijalva be βdeemed a member of the House of Representatives once she has taken the oath prescribed by law.ββ It also asks the judge to direct that if Johnson wonβt act, she be sworn in βby any person authorized by law to administer oaths.ββ
The lawsuit comes a day after Johnson blasted Grijalva for complaining about his refusal to swear her in.
βInstead of doing TikTok videos, she can be serving her constituents,ββ the speaker told reporters in Washington.
βShe could be taking their calls,ββ he said. βShe can be directing them, trying to help them through the crisis that the Democrats have created by shutting down the government.ββ
Johnson said itβs not his fault if Grijalva lacks access to what she says she needs.
βWhen a rep-elect comes in on a special election in particular, it is up to the leaders of her party ... to give them guidance and direction,ββ he said.
That includes introducing the person to the chief administrative officer of the House who can tell them how to get computers set up and get the necessary passwords, he said.
βThat call apparently was never made by Rep. Grijalva,ββ Johnson said. He said all that was being sorted out and βsheβll be able to use her computers now.ββ
He also said she has 16 staffers. βThey need to be taking calls,ββ Johnson said.
But Grijalva told Capitol Media Services that what the speaker is saying βis completely untrue.ββ She said she did go to the administrative office.
βThey asked us for a list of employees that we were going to onboard who, still, coincidentally, have not been onboarded,ββ Grijalva said.
What Johnson does not understand, she said, is that thereβs more involved for her and her staffers to actually do any work.
Consider, Grijalva said, when thereβs a request for help from a constituent.
βThere is a privacy act waiver, a consent form, that a constituent has to fill out in order for the office to advocate on their behalf,ββ she said. βThat is in the system, the federal system, that we donβt have access to.ββ
βI canβt do constituent services without being sworn in,ββ Grijalva said.
Whatβs been happening in the interim, Grijalva said, is small movements that still donβt create a fully functioning office.
For example, the placard with her name went up on a door, though it took time for her to get the keys. And there are now computers and phone lines.
But Grijalva said itβs unclear if she can access federal databases. And she still doesnβt have a government email account to take complaints and messages.
βWhat am I supposed to do?ββ Grijalva asked, saying she has two people in her Washington office who are sharing a computer
And thereβs more. Without being sworn in, she has no budget. And Grijalva said there are real effects to that.
For example, there were district offices rented by her father. On Sept. 19, βall of the computers, phones, everything was wiped,ββ she said. The leases ended four days later.
βWe donβt have a budget in order to enter into a lease,ββ Grijalva said, leaving her to work out of her campaign office.
Nor does she have a travel card, meaning she is using frequent flier miles for her trips from Tucson to Washington to try to get things set up.
Sheβs precluded from using campaign funds for the expenses of being an elected official, Grijalva said.
Sheβs left with Johnson βpiece-mealing outββ the things she should have by now, she said, after she won the Sept. 23 special election and the results were certified on Oct. 14.
βYouβve given me a car to drive with no engine, with no gas, with no tires,ββ she said.
Right now, the biggest need is for her to help constituents affected by the shutdown, Grijalva said. βThese are the people who elected me to work,ββ she said.
The situation as of Tuesday is that anyone who calls the Washington office that was occupied by her father gets a recorded message telling people if they need help, they should βcall their other Arizona officialsββ to deal with problems or questions.
It also says anyone who has a question about βcasework,ββ meaning an ongoing issue, can call the Tucson office.
As it turns out, there is a working phone number in Tucson β but for the district office of her father. In fact, it still answers with a recording of his voice, telling people they can leave a message.
The bottom line, Grijalva said, is she believes Johnson, while defending the decision to not swear her in while the House is in recess, just doesnβt understand the problem.
βMaybe I should show up at one of his press conferences and say, βYou want to go do a tour so I can better explain to you why what youβre saying is completely misleading and gaslight, because you make it appear that Iβm choosing not to work,β ββ she said.
While Grijalva clearly has standing to sue to claim the seat to which she was legally elected, Mayes told Capitol Media Services she does, too.
βIβm representing the people of Arizona who are now down one representative and, more specifically, representing the 813,000 in CD 7 who are now being taxed without representation,ββ Mayes said.
βWe would like a judge to take this up quickly,ββ she said. βAnd weβll be prosecuting the case as vigorously and quickly as we possibly can.ββ
Mayes also said there was a conscious decision to sue the House to demand that Grijalva be seated and not Johnson. She said that avoids any argument that Johnson, by virtue of his office, is immune from lawsuits.
