A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a $1.7 trillion spending bill passed in December 2022 is unconstitutional because it lacks a quorum and prevents enforcement of laws regarding pregnant women in the workplace. I put it down.
James Wesley Hendricks, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Texas Said They argued that the House improperly passed the spending package because a quorum of members was not physically present. At the time, the Democratic-led organization allowed proxy voting on the bill, with 215 Democrats and nine Republicans supporting it. (Related: DCNF reporter details high life now allows Democratic lawmakers to vote by proxy)
🚨 Big Victory: We Secured a Victory in Lawsuit A Challenging $1.7 Trillion Federal Funding Bill Unconstitutionally Passed by Less than Half of the Existing U.S. Congress Congress Passed the Largest Spending Bill in U.S. History They took the terrible step of passing it with a small number of members… https://t.co/5GiKsg9S2C
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) February 27, 2024
“Although the court has found the passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act to be unconstitutional, Texas has not sought to block the entire law, and the court has not done so,” Hendricks wrote on page 120. I wrote this in a paper. opinion. “Rather, the court only prohibits the application of the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act to the State of Texas. The relief granted here is limited to mitigation of the injury proven by the State of Texas.”
“Based on the language of the Quorum Clause, its original public meaning, and historical practice, the court concluded that the Quorum Clause prohibits the creation of a quorum by including an absent member who participates by proxy,” Hendricks added. Ta. “Supreme Court precedent has long held that quorum clauses require attendance, and the language of the clause distinguishes absent members from quorums and creates a physical quorum by forcing absent members to attend. This power to compel attendance has little meaning apart from physical presence.”
paxton sued President Joe Biden signed the bill in February 2023, claiming: court documents Congress' power to compel absentee members to attend “is of little value if the Constitution does not require physical presence,” he said.
“Congress did a terrible job passing the largest spending bill in American history with less than half of the House members,” Paxton said Tuesday afternoon. release. “Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi used COVID-19 as an excuse to abuse proxy voting to pass this law, and Biden signed it knowingly in violation of the Constitution. This is against the rule of law. It was a shocking violation. We are relieved that the court upheld the Constitution.”
In January 2022, the Supreme Court ruled against Republican efforts to challenge proxy voting rules put in place during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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