Arizona Sues as Elected Congresswoman Approaches Longest Swearing-In Delay

Adelita Grijalva was elected weeks ago to represent her late father’s Arizona district in Congress, but nearly a month later, the Democrat still hasn’t been sworn in as Republican Speaker Mike Johnson cites the ongoing shutdown as reason for the delay. Now, Grijalva and the state of Arizona are suing the Republican-led House of Representatives for refusing to seat her, allegedly beyond any lawful authority. Arizona’s Democratic Attorney General Kristin Mayes followed through on threats of legal action last week and filed a 17-page complaint to the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, arguing that Johnson “has not identified any valid reason for refusing to promptly seat” Grijalva, who won the Sept. 23 special election for Arizona’s deep-blue 7th district after Rep. Raúl Grijalva died in March before the end of what was to be his last term. Mayes’ lawsuit also argues that, though the task is typically left to the Speaker, the Constitution does not specify who must administer the oath of office to new representatives. The lawsuit seeks the court to issue a judgment that declares Grijalva a House of Representatives member “once she has taken the oath prescribed by law” and a judgment that, if Johnson has not administered the oath to Grijalva, “any person authorized by law to administer oaths under the law of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the State of Arizona” could do so instead. Speaking to reporters in the House on Tuesday, Johnson said the lawsuit was “patently absurd” and continued to defend the delay. “We run the House,” Johnson said. “She has no jurisdiction. We’re following the precedent. She’s looking for national publicity. Apparently she’s gotten some of it, but good luck with that.” The House has not been in regular legislative session since Sept. 19, after the lower chamber passed a government funding bill that has stalled in the Senate, effectively shutting down the government. Johnson, speaking to ABC News on Sunday, has said he refuses to bring the House back in session and “engage in anything” until the government reopens, and he reiterated the GOP’s talking point that Democrats were to blame for the shutdown. But Grijalva and her defenders argue that Johnson would not have to break precedent to swear her in—in fact, Johnson himself previously swore in lawmakers outside regular House sessions—and have suggested an ulterior motive to the delay: Grijalva could be the deciding vote in an effort to force the disclosure of files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whom President Donald Trump has sought to dismiss associations with. As the shutdown continues toward its own records, it’s unclear when Grijalva will get sworn in. As of Oct. 22, it will be 29 days since her election victory, putting her among the longest delays in recent congressional history. Longest swearing-in delays Special election winners don’t always get sworn in right away. Normally it can take a couple days to a couple weeks after the election for the representative to take office. But a few cases have taken a bit longer, some even cited by Johnson as he faces scrutiny over his ongoing delay in swearing in Grijalva. Johnson has referred to the three-week delay between the 2022 special election victories of Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan and Republican Joe Sempolinski, both of New York, and their swearing-in by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) only after the House returned from recess as the “Pelosi precedent.” But that recess was the planned August recess that Congress takes every year; whereas Johnson this year started the August recess early to avoid a vote on the Epstein files and has since shuttered House business again as the government shutdown continues, despite not having to do so. Ryan himself posted on X about the differences between the two cases, saying Tuesday: “Hey Mike — if you’re gonna keep invoking my name, at least get the facts right. No one CANCELLED scheduled votes to delay my swearing-in. You’re deliberately cancelling votes to protect pedophiles and take away health care from the American people.” Even longer than Ryan and Sempolinski’s delay was the swearing-in delay of Rep. Bradley Byrne (R, Ala.), who was elected on Dec. 17, 2013, four days after the House went on holiday recess, and sworn in on Jan. 8, 2014 after the House returned. Rep. Brenda Jones (D, Mich.) waited 23 days to be sworn in after her special election victory in November 2018, amid questions about her holding two offices at once. Eventually, then-Speaker Paul Ryan swore in Jones, who would only serve out the brief remainder of the term before the separate general election victor would take office in January, after the House agreed to a resolution to let her take the oath without resigning as president of the Detroit City Council. The COVID-19 pandemic also saw some lengthy swearing-in delays. Rep. Julia Letlow (R, La.) won a special election on March 20, 2021, to fill the seat vacated by her late husband Luke Letlow, who died from the virus. But Letlow wasn’t sworn in until 25 days later on April 14, 2021, due to the House operating under modified procedures.  Grijalva’s lawsuit said that Letlow and then-Speaker Pelosi had mutually agreed on a time convenient for all parties to do the swearing-in, though Letlow has recently denied requesting any deferral, saying in a post on X that her “preference was to begin serving immediately,” while seemingly defending Johnson’s approach to put off House business, including Grijalva’s swearing-in, as a pressure tactic on Democrats to end the shutdown. Read More: ​​Republicans Say Democrats Want to Give Healthcare to Illegal Immigrants. Here Are the Facts Also during the pandemic, Rep. Chris Jacobs (R, N.Y.) was sworn in on July 21, 2020, after winning an election that took place on June 23. But that’s because there were more than 130,000 absentee ballots that still needed to be counted, according to Buffalo Toronto Public Media. Rep. Greg Gianforte (R, Mont.) was sworn in on June 21, 2017, 27 days after winning a special election on May 25. Before the election, Gianforte was charged with assaulting a reporter on the campaign trail and had pleaded guilty after his victory. But state officials told the Wall Street Journal that Gianforte’s delayed swearing-in wasn’t linked to the assault but rather that they were waiting for the certification of the special election’s results, which the Associated Press had called when Gianforte had 51% of the initial count. Close election battles also led to the delayed swearing-in of Rep. Troy Balderson (R, Ohio) and Rep. Conor Lamb (D, Pa.) in 2018. Balderson was only sworn in on Sept. 5, 2018, 29 days after winning by a small margin against Democrat Danny O’Connor on Aug. 7, 2018, after a lengthy vote count led to the official declaration of a winner on Aug. 24. Lamb, meanwhile, was sworn in earlier that year on April 12, 30 days after his election on March 13, which he won by only 755 votes in a Pittsburgh-area district that Trump had won by 20 percentage points in 2016. While the vote was too close to call more than a week after the election, Lamb’s election opponent, Republican Rick Saccone, conceded. The longest swearing-in delay in recent history—so far—came when Democrat Jimmy Gomez was elected to represent California’s 34th district on June 6, 2017, but was not sworn in until July 11, 2017—a 35-day gap. Gomez and his allies described the reason for the postponement as a “family conflict.” But Republicans slammed him, suggesting that he was clinging to his state Assembly seat a little bit longer to help fellow state Democrats push a climate-change-related bill before taking office in D.C. “This unabashed play to politics,” then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R, Calif.) said at the time, “is an abdication to participate in representative democracy.”