Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, along with Reps. Thomas Massie and Ralph Norman recently filed a lawsuit against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the $500 mask fines in the U.S House of Representatives. The members were slapped with fines for refusing to wear masks in the House Chamber from May 18-19, with a $500 fine for a first offense and $2,500 for a second offense. The rules are currently based on an “honor system” for those who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19.
“It is beyond me why we are mistreating people, segregating people, discriminating against people for masks and vaccines, which should be a choice,” Greene said.
Massie and Greene have both opted against getting vaccinated and pointed out that Pelosi is only doing this to play political games. The reps said there is no law for masks and that she did this by changing the rule on her own, which violates the 27th Amendment. The 27th Amendment states that laws changing the compensation of Congress members cannot take effect in the middle of the two-year congressional season. Article 1, Section 5 only lets Congress punish behavior or claim compensation if it is set by a “law,” which the mask rules are not.
They also argued that the mandate was out of sync with the recent guidance from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention on face coverings. While the three Republican reps challenged the fine with the U.S House Ethics Committee, they lost their appeals. The next step is by suing Pelosi.
Massie said her rule was not based on science. He said “all you need to know” is that the mask rule is only ever applied to members when they can be seen on TV. He emphasized that he was filing the lawsuit because the American people need somebody to fight and they are tired of those who won’t.
“We are fighting this fight because if they can get away with this in Congress, they’ll do the same things to our kids when they go back to school, they’ll do the same things to hard-working Americans in their workplaces, and they’ll do the same things to our soldiers,” Massie said in a statement. “We are standing up to Pelosi for the American people who are tired of mask mandates, vaccine coercion, and violations of basic constitutional rights,” Massie said.
Pelosi’s mask mandates serve as another purely partisan game for those who choose not to get vaccinated. It’s also an attack on Republicans and not the first time Pelosi has pulled this stunt. She also ordered metal detectors to be placed at the entrance of the House Floor after the Jan 6. riot. Reps. Louie Gohmert and Andrew Clyde challenged the orders and were fined thousands of dollars over it.
Pelosi even tried to push proxy voting in the House of Representatives last year as a “health measure in reaction to COVID-19.”
If you want to wear a mask, go ahead. But it’s not a right to force it on someone else. This is the problem with Pelosi’s power.
