DC court smacks down House Republicans’ lawsuit over mask policy fines: report

30 June 2023

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has ruled against three GOP House members' lawsuit alleging a now-defunct congressional mask mandate defied "their First Amendment right to free speech and their Twenty-Seventh Amendment entitlement to their salary," The Washington Post reports.

Per the Post, former President Donald Trump appointed Judge Naomi Rao rejected the lawmakers' argument, writing, "We cannot consider the merits of the Representatives' constitutional arguments because their suit concerns legislative acts protected by the Speech or Debate Clause."

The House members — U.S. Reps. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) and Ralph Norman (R-South Carolina) — were also attempting to contest the fines they received when the mask policy was still enforced.

The Postreports:

The House passed a resolution in January 2021 authorizing fines of $500 for a first failure to comply with masking rules in the chamber and $2,500 for subsequent offenses, deducted from their $174,000 annual pay. In late 2021, a spokesman for Greene said she had incurred $48,000 in fines. She and the other lawmakers argued the rules were inconsistently applied and that their decision to go maskless on the House floor was a form of protest.

According to the report, Rao included a footnote in the ruling, saying, "this case concerns only the Clause's immunity from suit and does not implicate the other protections recognized as flowing from the Clause, such as its evidentiary and testimonial privileges.

The Washington Post's full report is available at this link (subscription required).

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