Three Republicans who were fined by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for not wearing masks have asked the United States Supreme Court to take up their case.
Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and Congressman Ralph Norman of South Carolina were each fined $500 in 2021 for not complying with Pelosi’s mandate following the global outbreak of COVID-19. The trio contends the punishment violates the 27th Amendment of the Constitution, which states any change to the compensation of a Senator and Representatives cannot go into effect until after an election.
“When we filed this lawsuit against Pelosi’s mask mandate, I said we would take it to the Supreme Court if necessary, and that is what it has finally come to,” Massie wrote in a Nov. 28 post on X in July of 2021.
“This case involves an attempt to vary the pay of members of Congress without an intervening election because of their decision to act in accordance with the values of the overwhelming majority of their constituency,” the complaint states.
The plaintiffs note that the 27th Amendment was meant to keep elected offices from being the exclusive occupations of wealthy members of society.
“In addition to concerns about pay increases, the Founders were also greatly concerned that diminishing congressional pay could be used to pressure Members from exercising independent judgment, which could prevent qualified men of modest means from serving in the new national legislature," according to the filing. "The founding generation was well aware, for instance, of the practice of candidates for the British House of Commons promising to reduce (or even eliminate) their wages in order to garner popularity with their constituents, which had that very effect.”
“Those foundational concerns are precisely what underlie this case: using financial pressure, through the manipulation of salary by the House Democratic Majority, to deprive Republican Members, and only Republican Members, of their political independence,” the complaint states.
In June, the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Representatives' appeal.
“We cannot consider the merits of the Representatives' constitutional arguments because their suit concerns legislative acts protected by the Speech or Debate Clause,” wrote Judge Naomi Rao.
Pelosi’s mask mandate was criticized by many House Republicans.
“Make no mistake —The threat of bringing masks back is not a decision based on science, but a decision conjured up by liberal government officials who want to continue to live in a perpetual pandemic state,” said Congressman Kevin McCarthy on social media in July of 2021.
“He’s such a moron,” Pelosi said when asked about McCarthy’s remarks by reporters the next day, per USA Today. At the time, the House and the Senate had different mask requirements.
Congress ultimately dropped its mask requirements shortly before the State of the Union in February of 2022.
