Lawsuit seeks to force swearing in of US Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva of
Arizona
[October 22, 2025]
PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has filed a lawsuit
that seeks to get Democrat Adelita Grijalva sworn in as the state’s
newest member of Congress after U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson has
refused to seat her a month since winning the post.
The Democratic attorney general filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Washington
on behalf of Grijalva. It asks a judge to let other people, such as
federal judges, who are authorized to administer the oath swear in
Grijalva if Johnson has not done so. Mayes has said previously that the
delay in giving Grijalva, the first Latina to represent Arizona in
Congress, the oath of office leaves over 800,000 people in the southern
Arizona district without representation.
Grijalva, a former school board member and member of a county governing
board in the Tucson area, easily won a Sept. 23 special election to fill
the post previously held by her father, progressive Democrat Raúl
Grijalva, who died in March after serving in Congress for more than two
decades. She said the delay has left people in her district without the
constituent services that are normally provided by congressional
offices.
Johnson has said Adelita Grijalva will be sworn in when the House
returns to session, blamed the government shutdown for the delay and
accused Mayes of seeking publicity when she threatened to file the
lawsuit. Johnson said the lawsuit was “patently absurd” and criticized
the Arizona attorney general for filing the case. “Good luck with that,”
the House speaker said.
Once she is sworn in, Grijalva would narrow the margins and give
Democrats more power to confront Trump and the GOP agenda.
Democrats have accused Johnson of delaying Grijalva’s swearing-in
because it improves their chances of forcing a vote for the release of
the Justice Department files on the sex trafficking investigation into
the late Jeffrey Epstein. Johnson has rejected the accusation. Grijalva
has pledged to back the effort to release the Epstein investigation
documents and would be the last signature needed for a petition to force
that vote.
In an interview Tuesday hours before the suit was filed, Grijalva said
the delay means she is unable to sign a lease on office space within her
district to response to constituent requests. “I don’t have constituents
until I’m sworn in,” Grijalva said.
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Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., speaks as she is surrounded by
supporters who have urged that House Speaker Mike Johnson swear her
in, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. (AP
Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Johnson said Grijalva was elected the week after the House had
already gone out of legislative session following its vote on a
short-term spending bill to fund the federal government. Christian
Fong, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan who
specializes in Congressional procedure and organization, said the
lawsuit serves to make a messaging point rather than an intention to
have substantive effect. He said the lawsuit will have “very little”
impact on whether Johnson’s swearing in timeline will shorten. He
doesn’t see a very severe violation of House precedents or rules, or
Constitutional rules, and he said it is very likely Grijalva is
sworn in before the litigation takes its course.
“This is the usual litigiousness that characterizes the relationship
between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to elections,” Fong
said.
Lawmakers who win special elections generally take the oath of
office on days in which legislative business is conducted, and they
are welcomed with warm applause from members on both sides of the
aisle. They give a short speech as family and friends watch from the
galleries.
There is precedent for doing it differently. On April 2, Johnson
swore in Republican Reps. Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine, both of
Florida, less than 24 hours after they won their special elections,
during a pro forma session.
Johnson has said the circumstances were unique because the House had
unexpectedly gone out of session that day. Patronis and Fine had
already arranged for their families, friends and supporters to be in
Washington.
But Johnson also said there is precedent for not yet administering
her the oath of office. He noted that Rep. Julia Letlow, a
Republican from Louisiana, waited 25 days before her 2021
swearing-in ceremony, filling the seat her late husband was elected
to but never filled after dying of COVID-19. At the time, Democrats
controlled the House.
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