A federal district court has rejected a lawsuit filed by Marjorie Taylor Greene and two other Republican members of the House of Representatives against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi over penalties for not wearing masks during a vote.
Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Ralph Norman of South Carolina joined Greene of Georgia in suing Pelosi, claiming that the policy mandating face masks infringed on their right to free expression and that the $500 penalties they received were in violation of the Constitution's 27th Amendment.
Republicans' Lawsuit Against Pelosi Fails To Pass the Court
The complaint was rejected on Wednesday by Judge Reggie B. Walton of the District Court for the District of Columbia, who determined that the House mask policy did not violate their right to free expression in a 47-page order.
Walton also determined that the fines did not violate the 27th Amendment's prohibition on wage reductions for members of Congress taking effect until after the following election.
In May 2021, Massie, Greene, and Norman went to a vote in the House without wearing masks, breaking a policy put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. In July 2021, they filed a lawsuit against Pelosi, a Democrat. They also sued the sergeant-at-arms and the House's main administrative officer.
"The withdrawal of penalties from plaintiffs' wages according to House Resolution 38 does not violate the Twenty-Seventh Amendment, and hence the Twenty-Seventh Amendment does not limit the House's jurisdiction to establish the mask policy or House Resolution 38," the court said, Newsweek via MSN reported.
Judge Walton also dismissed their victimhood allegation that they were discriminated against because of what they called "contrary viewpoint-based symbolic communication." Judge Walton also dismissed their allegation that current scientific data show that wearing a face mask does not affect slowing or stopping the spread of COVID-19.
Their main argument was that the 27th Amendment made it unlawful for them to be penalized, which they argued was equivalent to a pay cut. That argument was likewise dismissed by the judge, according to The New Civil Rights Movement.
Pelosi Recently Fires Back at Boebert, Greene
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has retaliated against Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene for interrupting President Joe Biden's State of the Union address.
Pelosi was queried about the pair's behavior during her weekly news conference by a reporter who compared them to South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson, a Republican who earned notoriety after yelling "You lie!" " at one of former President Barack Obama's congressional speeches.
Wilson, who currently represents South Carolina's 2nd District in Congress, was the subject of a House vote of censure in the days following his interruption of then-President Barack Obama. The two Republican congresswomen were chastised by their colleagues for interrupting Vice President Joe Biden's speech to a joint session of Congress.
But it was Ms. Boebert who received shouts and screams of "shame" as she angrily heckled Biden as he recounted his eldest son, Beau Biden's, death from brain cancer, which may have been caused by burn pits he experienced while serving as an Army National Guard officer in Iraq, as per Independent.
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