Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat elected almost exactly a month ago, filed a lawsuit in federal court on Tuesday demanding that Speaker Mike Johnson or another government official swear her in to Congress.
Ms. Grijalva easily won a Sept. 23 special election to fill the seat left vacant in March by the death of her father, Representative Raúl Grijalva, who served for more than two decades in Congress.
But Mr. Johnson, who has kept the House in recess for more than a month during the government shutdown, has not sworn her in, even though he has had multiple opportunities to do so during brief congressional sessions over the past several weeks.
“It’s so antidemocratic,” Ms. Grijalva said in an interview on Wednesday. “The job of the speaker is to be the speaker for the House. Not for Democrats or Republicans. And I think it’s very clear that if I was a Republican, I would be sworn in already.”
As a member of Congress, she would narrow the already slim majority that Republican hold in the House, making it even harder for Mr. Johnson to pass bills if only a handful of members of his party are opposed.
Further, Ms. Grijalva has pledged to add her name — providing the last necessary signature — to a bipartisan petition to force a vote on a measure demanding that the Trump administration release files on the investigation of the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Mr. Johnson has denied that his refusal to seat Ms. Grijalva is tied to any desire on the part of the White House and Republican congressional leaders to avoid the vote on the Epstein files.
The lawsuit represents an escalation in the Democratic pressure campaign to have Ms. Grijalva sworn in. She was joined in the suit by Kris Mayes, the attorney general of Arizona and a Democrat. In a statement, Ms. Mayes said, “Speaker Mike Johnson is actively stripping the people of Arizona of one of their seats in Congress and disenfranchising the voters of Arizona’s seventh congressional district in the process.”
Filed in the United States District Court in Washington, D.C., the suit argues that there is no legal basis for the delay.
Ms. Grijalva “indisputably meets the constitutional qualifications” to take office, the suit says, and Mr. Johnson has no authority to “arbitrarily delay” her ability to carry out her duties as a member of Congress, including signing petitions, sponsoring bills and providing constituent services.
The lawsuit requests that a federal judge order that Ms. Grijalva be sworn in by Mr. Johnson or by “any person authorized by law to administer oaths.”
By law, a federal judge could swear Ms. Grijalva in, a rare but not unprecedented alternative to the speaker’s doing so.
The lawsuit asserts that the speaker “has not identified any reason that he (or a designee) is unable to administer the oath” to Ms. Grijalva.
It also notes that Mr. Johnson swore in two Republicans this year while the House was not in session for legislative business. Those representatives, Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine, both of Florida, were seated within 24 hours of winning special elections in April.
The speaker’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but he has said that Ms. Grijalva’s situation is different than that of the Florida representatives because she was elected while the House was out of session. However, there is no such distinction in the law or the rules of the chamber.
Without the keys to unlock the office her father once used, a budget or access to any materials she would need to do the job for which she was elected, Ms. Grijalva has worked from a conference room on Capitol Hill while she waits to assume her post.
She called the speaker’s delay in swearing her in “obstruction” that has left her constituents without a voice in Washington.
“Before I was just sort of incredulous — like I can’t believe I’m in this situation — and every day that passes I’m just getting more angry,” Ms. Grijalva said on Wednesday.
“Let’s do it now,” she added. “I have a Bible.”
Megan Mineiro is a Times congressional reporter and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for early-career journalists.
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