{"id":610516,"date":"2024-02-28T02:02:54","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T23:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/federal-judge-rules-proxy-votes-cant-count-toward-house-quorum\/"},"modified":"2024-02-28T02:02:54","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T23:02:54","slug":"federal-judge-rules-proxy-votes-cant-count-toward-house-quorum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/federal-judge-rules-proxy-votes-cant-count-toward-house-quorum\/","title":{"rendered":"#Federal judge rules proxy votes can\u2019t count toward House quorum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/390d0fb6ca514372a09105e0f5ff4292.jpg?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A federal judge in Texas ruled Tuesday that proxy votes made in the House during the COVID-19 pandemic should not have counted toward the body\u2019s quorum, calling into question the validity of votes during that period and opening the door to potential legal challenges to some pandemic-era legislation.<\/p>\n<p>The rule, implemented by House Democrats amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, allowed the House to pass legislation without a physical quorum of members present, counting toward a quorum those who attended and voted virtually or by proxy.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Judge James Wesley Hendrix <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.courtlistener.com\/docket\/66817040\/111\/state-of-texas-v-department-of-justice\/\">determined that the<\/a> House\u2019s proxy voting rule violated the Quorum Clause of the Constitution.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSupreme Court precedent has long held that the Quorum Clause requires presence, and the Clause\u2019s text distinguishes those absent members from the quorum and provides a mechanism for obtaining a physical quorum by compelling absent members to attend,\u201d Hendrix wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The State of Texas <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.courtlistener.com\/docket\/66817040\/1\/state-of-texas-v-department-of-justice\/\">challenged the rule<\/a> last February, specifically demanding that two pieces of legislation be halted: the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) and <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ropriations for the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s Alternatives to Detention Case Management Pilot Program.<\/p>\n<p>The PWFA is a <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eeoc.gov\/wysk\/what-you-should-know-about-pregnant-workers-fairness-act\">workers\u2019 rights bill<\/a> passed in May 2021 that provides additional federal protections to pregnant workers. Hendrix determined Texas was able to prove injury regarding the PWFA, but not the Case Management Pilot Program.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hendrix implemented an injunction against the PWFA\u2019s implementation in Texas because it passed without a legal quorum. The case only halts the law in Texas but opens the door to legal challenges to other COVID-era legislation nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>Proxy voting was stricken from House rules when the GOP took over the body in 2023. More than half of the House membership voted virtually for the final proxy vote, a $1.7 trillion omnibus bill in late December 2022.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>That final vote, just before Christmas Eve and during harsh weather, saw an exceptionally high mark of proxy votes, raising eyebrows among some members about others taking advantage of the outgoing rule.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomething tells me much more that this has to do with people wanting to be home for Christmas,\u201d Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.) told The Hill at the time.<\/p>\n<p>The House Parliamentarian determined before the vote that rules allowed members to vote remotely and that their presence counted toward a quorum. Hendrix\u2019s Tuesday decision goes against that opinion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2024 Nexstar <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Media<\/a> Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/regulation\/court-battles\/4492212-federal-judge-rules-proxy-votes-cant-count-toward-house-quorum\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A federal judge in Texas ruled Tuesday that proxy votes made in the House during the COVID-19 pandemic should not have counted toward the body\u2019s quorum, calling into question the validity of votes during that period and opening the door to potential legal challenges to some pandemic-era legislation. The rule, implemented by House Democrats amid&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":610517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/390d0fb6ca514372a09105e0f5ff4292.jpg?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[139252,134343,134353,148982,141609,148983,73014,148984,148985,70289,4965,6474],"class_list":["post-610516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-business-economy","tag-campaign","tag-court-battles","tag-covid-19-voting","tag-evening-report","tag-guy-reschenthaler","tag-health-care","tag-house-proxy-voting","tag-proxy-voting","tag-senate","tag-technology","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}