A federal judge in Texas has curtailed federal lawmakers’ abilities to vote on behalf of others not physically present in Congress, ruling that the practice initiated during Covid-19 lockdowns violated the US Constitution’s quorum requirements.
Judge James Hendrix of the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas sided with the state of Texas on Tuesday, which had sued the federal government to block legislation included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023. The House of Representatives failed to meet a quorum when passing the funding package through proxy voting in late 2022 with only 201 members present, said ...