A federal judge in the very conservative Northern District of Texas essentially ruled that all the votes held on the floor of the House and Senate that involved proxy votes–an administrative move put in place during the pandemic to assist with the continuing function of government–violated the Quorum Clause of the Constitution, essentially making the votes invalid.

In a case brought by the State of Texas challenging Judge James Wesley Hendrix, a Trump appointee (with a complicated past:  he was originally nominated by Obama for the same seat on the bench) ruled that because the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act was passed using proxy voting to put Congress in session, “the Attorney General, the United States Department of Justice, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, [various named bureaucrats], their divisions, bureaus, agents, officers, commissioners, employees, and anyone acting in concert or participation with them, including their successors in office, are permanently enjoined from enforcing” the law.

Hendrix pointed out that he was not ruling on the law itself, but on the manner in which the law was passed.  “But because the Court is interpreting and enforcing the Constitution—rather than second-guessing a vote count—the Court disagrees. 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.”

So because Texas objected to enforcing a law protecting pregnant women’s rights, Texas can now claim none of the laws passed with proxy-base quorums need to be enforced.  No worries, though:  the Supreme Court already declined a case on the issue in a suit brought by then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, basically ruling the House makes its own rules.