Supreme Court declines to hear McCarthy’s challenge to Pelosi’s proxy voting rules

By Ariane de Vogue and Kristin Wilson, CNN

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s challenge to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s proxy voting protocols that were put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic.

McCarthy, a California Republican, had asked the justices last year to overturn a resolution passed by the House in May 2020 that enables members to have a colleague vote for them even though they are not physically present in the House chamber. The resolution allows a member to vote on behalf of as many as 10 absent members.

Republicans have derided the practice as a power move by Democratic leadership to ensure they keep their slim majority on tight votes regardless whether all their members are on Capitol Hill, but despite their objections, more than half of the Republican conference have voted by proxy.

Lawyers for McCarthy argued that so far, 300 absent members have appointed another member to vote on their behalf. They say the resolution is unconstitutional in part because members are required to be physically present to do business. They also argued that one member can’t delegate his or her legislative power to another member.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

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