Attorney General Kris Mayes is taking House Speaker Mike Johnson to federal court, claiming he's illegally preventing a newly elected representative from taking office.
Attorney General Kris Mayes announced this week that she's filed a lawsuit demanding that Adelita Grijalva be sworn in to Congress. Grijalva won Arizona's seventh Congressional district election last month with nearly 69% of the vote, but Speaker Johnson has refused to administer her oath of office for four weeks.
"Speaker Mike Johnson is actively stripping the people of Arizona of one of their seats in Congress," Mayes said in a statement. She accused Johnson of creating "taxation without representation" for over 800,000 Arizona voters in the district by blocking Grijalva from taking her rightful seat.
Mayes didn't hold back in her criticism, stating that Johnson's actions go beyond partisan politics. "I will not allow Arizonans to be silenced or treated as second-class citizens in their own democracy," she emphasized.
The Lawsuit
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., argues that the Constitution doesn't allow anyone, including the Speaker, to block a qualified, elected representative from serving.
Mayes cited a landmark 1966 Supreme Court case, Powell v. McCormack, which established that the House cannot exclude anyone "duly elected by his constituents, who meets all the requirements for membership."
The complaint highlights what she believes to be hypocrisy on Johnson's part. It points to recent comments he made on Fox News, where he said that if voters "duly elect a representative, then we will welcome them into the body. That would be the job of a speaker."
Grijalva's election was officially certified on October 14. According to the lawsuit, she meets all constitutional requirements to serve in Congress, including age, citizenship, and residency in Arizona. The only step remaining is the oath of office, which federal law designates the Speaker to administer.
The case centers on whether a Speaker has the authority to prevent a duly elected representative from being sworn in by keeping the House out of regular session.
