Mayes Sues to Compel Grijalva Swearing-In

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a federal lawsuit in Washington, D.C., asking a judge to compel House Speaker Mike Johnson to administer the oath to Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva or to allow another authorized official to do so after Johnson withheld the oath roughly a month after her Sept. 23 special-election victory to fill her late father's seat. Mayes and Grijalva say the delay disenfranchises about 813,000 residents of Arizona's 7th District, prevents Grijalva from accessing federal systems, hiring staff or opening district offices, and amounts to partisan obstruction. Johnson says he is following precedent, blames the government shutdown for the delay, calls the lawsuit “patently absurd” and has said he will swear her in when the House returns. Democrats contend the timing is political because Grijalva would provide the decisive 218th signature needed to force votes including on a petition to release Justice Department files related to Jeffrey Epstein; Johnson rejects that allegation. A federal judge, Trevor McFadden, has been assigned to the case but no hearing date is set. Legal scholars caution federal courts rarely intervene in internal House matters and say any court-ordered remedy is unlikely to be quick, meaning the dispute could take months to resolve.