Jeffries warns of ‘swift and decisive legal action’ if Republicans refuse to seat Grijalva

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Friday that Democrats will respond with quick legal action if Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) does not seat Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) on Friday. 

Arizona’s Democratic attorney general has already threatened to file such a lawsuit against Johnson over his refusal to swear in Grijalva while the House is out of session during the ongoing government shutdown. 

Jeffries suggested that suit will proceed if Johnson does not seat Grijalva during a brief pro forma session of the House scheduled for Friday at 2 p.m. 

“This has gone on now for weeks,” Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol. “And so it's my expectation that, if she is not sworn in today — during the pro forma session today — as the Arizona attorney general has made clear, expect swift and decisive legal action." 

Grijalva won a special election on Sept. 23 to replace her late father, Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who died in March after more than two decades in Congress. Johnson has said she won’t be sworn in until the full House is called back to Washington to ensure she receives the “pomp and circumstance” of the traditional swearing in ceremony. 

“As I have said repeatedly, the House will follow customary practice by swearing in Rep.-elect Grijalva when the House is in legislative session,” Johnson said this week.

Yet there’s a recent precedent for swearing in newly elected House members when Congress is not in town. Johnson in April seated two Florida Republicans during pro forma sessions, one day after they won special elections. 

The Speaker said he made an exception in those cases because the lawmakers’ families were in Washington. Democrats don’t buy that argument, saying Johnson is delaying Grijalva’s swearing in because she promises to be the decisive 218th signature on a discharge petition forcing a vote on legislation to release the government files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the late child sex offender. 

“It's shameful that she has not been sworn in because Speaker Johnson and House Republicans apparently want to continue to hide the Jeffrey Epstein files from the American people,” Jeffries said Friday.

Johnson opposes the Epstein bill, arguing that the better way to investigate his case is through the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is conducting its own probe. But the Speaker has denied the charge that his refusal to swear in Grijalva is related to Epstein at all. 

On Tuesday, Arizona’s attorney general, Kris Mayes, wrote to Johnson warning that her office is considering all legal options in its effort to get Grijalva seated sooner than later. The delay, she said, is unconstitutional.

“The effect of your failure to follow usual practice is that Arizona is down a representative from the number to which it is constitutionally entitled,” Mayes wrote. “And the more than 813,000 residents of  Arizona’s Seventh Congressional District currently have no representation in Congress.”