As outlined in U.S. District Judge James Hendrix’s 120-page opinion, the U.S. Constitution’s Quorum Clause requires a majority of House or Senate members to be physically present in order to pass legislation. “This rule prevents a minority of members from passing legislation that affects the entire nation,” Hendrix wrote. “But despite the Constitution’s text and centuries of consistent practice, the House in 2020 created a rule that permitted non-present members to be included in the quorum count and vote by proxy.” After that rule, the House passed a new law included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, which Texas argued is unenforceable because congress violated the Constitution in passing the law without a majority of lawmakers present. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, the defendant in the case, argued that the court has no authority to address the issue because it cannot look to intrinsic evidence to question whether a bill became law, Hendrix stated. “But because the Court is interpreting and enforcing the Constitution — rather than second-guessing a vote count — the court disagrees,” Hendrix wrote. “The court concludes that, by including members who were indisputably absent in the quorum count, the act at issue passed in violation of the Constitution’s Quorum Clause.” When President Joe Biden signed the bill into law, Paxton sued and sought an injunction against the implementation of certain provisions of the law that affected Texas. “Congress acted egregiously by passing the largest spending bill in U.S. history with fewer than half the members of the House bothering to do their jobs, show up, and vote in person,” Paxton said in a statement. “Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi abused proxy voting under the pretext of COVID-19 to pass this law, then Biden signed it, knowing they violated the Constitution. This was a stunning violation of the rule of law. I am relieved the court upheld the Constitution.”Following a legal challenge brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a court has ruled that the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2022 was unconstitutional.
