A federal appeals court grilled Justice Department lawyers on Tuesday over Congress’s pandemic-era policy of proxy voting for legislation, after Texas filed a lawsuit arguing that a law passed by a majority of congressmen who voted by proxy was passed unconstitutionally.
The full bench of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit heard arguments in a lawsuit challenging the enactment of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a $1.7 trillion federal omnibus bill passed in 2022, after more than half of the votes in the House were cast remotely using the pandemic-era proxy voting policy under then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). The judges on the appeals court grilled DOJ lawyer Sean Janda over his defense of the House’s now-defunct proxy voting rule, as he argued it is in compliance with the quorum clause of the Constitution, which finds a majority of the chamber must be present to conduct votes.
