Soon-to-be Arizona Representative Adelita Grijalva filed a lawsuit against the House of Representatives for not being sworn in during the current government shutdown.
The file comes after Grijalva succeeded the position of her father, former Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who served in Congress from 2003 until his death in 2025.
In a memorable election, the Democratic Grijalva beat out Republican Daniel Boutierez on Sept. 23, becoming the new representative for Arizona’s 7th Congressional District.
On Oct. 21, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced that the state of Arizona and Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva would be filing a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. against the U.S. House of Representatives.
Mayes criticized House Speaker Mike Johnson and his resistance toward swearing in Grijalva, accusing his actions of being “petty partisan politics” and “unlawful.”
“Speaker Mike Johnson is actively stripping the people of Arizona of one of their seats in Congress and disenfranchising the voters of Arizona’s seventh Congressional district in the process,” Mayes said in a statement. “By blocking Adelita Grijalva from taking her rightful oath of office, he is subjecting Arizona’s seventh Congressional district to taxation without representation. I will not allow Arizonans to be silenced or treated as second-class citizens in their own democracy.”
Johnson stated that he would be swearing in Grijalva once the House is back in session, although that future is still unforeseen.
“This is the process of the House, we’ll do it as soon as we get back to business,” Johnson said.
While often a long and difficult process, it is still legally possible to swear in a Representative while the government is in shutdown — as there is no rule prohibiting the action.
Not only is the House battling a government shutdown and Grijalva’s enrollment, but a forlonging issue is beginning to echo within the two chambers of Congress — the release of the Epstein files.
On August 5, the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Department of Justice for records relating to its investigation of convicted sex-offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
The subpoena has achieved the remarkable ability to create a bipartisan action to release the files, something unsuspected during this current time of high partisanship between the two parties in Congress.
“While the Department undertakes efforts to uncover and publicly disclose additional information related to Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell’s cases, it is imperative that Congress conduct oversight of the federal government’s enforcement of sex trafficking laws generally and specifically its handling of the investigation and prosecution of Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell,” Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) said in a statement addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
So, what does Grivalja have to do with this? A lot, actually.
Many Republicans and Democrats, including Grijalva, alleged that her inability to be sworn in is due to her being the 218th signature in the House that would bring the files from the Justice Department’s investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Espetin to the floor in a discharge petition.
“I remember on election night, someone came up to me and said, ‘I don’t think they’re going to swear you in because of those Epstein files,’” Grijalva said in an interview with NPR. “And I thought, ‘oh my gosh, that’s very much a conspiracy theory. Like that’s not going to happen.’ And here we are.”
Johnson dismissed those claims, arguing that Republicans have been working on releasing the files in an investigation led by the GOP-led House Oversight Committee.
President Donald Trump has come under fire regarding his past alleged relationship with Epstein, though Trump claims that they had a falling out after 2007, after Trump banned Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago estate after he allegedly harassed the daughter of a member.
However, many Democrats and Republicans are hoping that through the Epstein Transparency Act, the president’s documented relationship with the sex-offender will be finally brought to light. Grijalva’s signature is just one step closer to that light.
