Washington DC - The State of Arizona sued the House on Tuesday over Republican Speaker Mike Johnson's refusal to swear Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva in to Congress.
The complaint – filed in the US District Court of the District of Columbia – accuses Johnson of having "unlawfully interfered with Ms. Grijalva’s constitutional right to take office, and the State’s right to the number of Representatives provided for by law."
The filing asks the judge to allow someone else to swear in Grijalva if Johnson won't.
"Speaker Mike Johnson is actively stripping the people of Arizona of one of their seats in Congress and disenfranchising the voters of Arizona’s seventh Congressional district in the process," Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a statement.
"By blocking Adelita Grijalva from taking her rightful oath of office, he is subjecting Arizona’s seventh Congressional district to taxation without representation. I will not allow Arizonans to be silenced or treated as second-class citizens in their own democracy."
Grijalva won the September 23 special election to represent Arizona's 7th congressional district in the US House, but she has not been able to take her seat, as Johnson has not yet sworn her in.
The former Pima County supervisor is the eldest daughter of Raúl Grijalva, who served in the House from 2003 until his death due to complications during cancer treatment earlier this year.
Mayes last week threatened legal action if Johnson did not swear in the representative-elect "without further delay."
"Speaker Johnson’s obstruction has gone far beyond petty partisan politics – it’s an unlawful breach of our Constitution and the democratic process," Grijalva said.
"I’m proud to join Attorney General Mayes in standing up for the more than 800,000 Arizonans who have been stripped of their voice in Congress. Speaker Johnson cannot continue to disenfranchise an entire district and suppress their representation to shield this administration from accountability and block justice for the Epstein survivors."
A discharge petition, which would force a House floor vote on compelling the Justice Department to release more of its Jeffrey Epstein files, is just one signature shy of the required 218 – and Grijalva has said she would sign it.