Speaker Nancy Pelosi is going to have to defend her fining of three Republican lawmakers for violating the House of Representatives’ “mask mandate,” which earlier conflicted with CDC guidance.
GOP Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie and Ralph Norman are suing Pelosi in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after they were each fined $500 for not wearing masks on the House floor.
The Republican lawmakers are arguing in court that Speaker Pelosi’s rule is unconstitutional and they are seeking the dismissal of the fines.
The Congressional members recently lost their battle with Speaker Pelosi over the mask fines when their appeals failed to move the House Ethics Committee.
The mask fines were handed down in May. The Republicans challenged the fines in June, pointing to CDC guidance issued a week earlier that “fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing.”
The fines were imposed despite Speaker Pelosi going without a mask in government buildings outside of the House, such as at a White House function she attended with other prominent Democrats in May.
Speaker Pelosi issued mask violation warnings to seven other Republicans: Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Chip Roy of Texas, Bob Good of Virginia, Mary Miller of Illinois and Louie Gohmert of Texas.
The Republicans had sought to change the House rules to follow the CDC guidance, but House Democrats blocked the resolution. The resolution was introduced by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other Republicans.
“I voted on the House floor without wearing my mask,” Norman protested. “I did so because I was following the direction of our nation’s top scientists that fully vaccinated individuals do not need to wear a mask.”
Meanwhile, Greene called the fine “arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, and otherwise not consistent with law or with principles of fairness.”
Pelosi’s most famous act of COVID regulation hypocrisy came in September 2020, when she was caught without a mask at a salon that had been ‘locked down’ in San Francisco.
Speaker Pelosi will now have to defend her actions in a court of law. May it be the first of many such lawsuits.
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OPINION: This article contains commentary which reflects the author's opinion.