Alabama 1st District U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne and a handful of his House Republican colleagues have filed a lawsuit again Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in an effort to block the use of ‘unconstitutional’ proxy voting before the Speaker employs it this week.
Pelosi intends to use proxy voting, breaking over 230 years of precedent, in order to allow Members of Congress to vote by proxy on the House floor in light of COVID-19.
Filed on Tuesday in DC federal district court, the suit alleges that proxy voting is unconstitutional, and violates the Quorum and Yeas and Nays Clauses contained in Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution, among other provisions.
“The Constitution is clear that a majority must be present for the House to conduct business,” said Bryne. “Speaker Pelosi’s attempt to allow Democrats to cast multiple ‘proxy’ votes for their colleagues is a blatant violation of the Constitution. Under rules adopted last week, as few as 22 Democrats could claim a quorum and win a vote against all 197 Republicans.”
He continued, “This scheme gives Pelosi and her lieutenants complete and dangerous unconstitutional powers. If Democrats won’t show up to vote, they should turn the speaker’s gavel over to Leader McCarthy and the Republicans who are actually willing to show up and work for the people they represent.”
Proxy voting was authorized over the objections of all Republicans in the House due to a number of Democrat members not wishing to travel to Washington during the coronavirus pandemic. Without proxy voting, Pelosi would have trouble maintaining a majority over Republicans as at least 58 Democrats have indicated they will ask another member to proxy vote for them this week in Congress.
