Texas Federal Judge Rules $1.7 Trillion Spending Bill’s Passage Violated Constitution

Nancy Pelosi helped implement the proxy voting rule, following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, as an emergency measure.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks at the Save America rally in Robstown, Texas, on Oct. 22, 2022. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

A federal judge in Texas ruled on Feb. 27 that a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package was unconstitutionally passed in the House of Representatives in 2022 using a pandemic-era rule implemented, in part, by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

In his ruling (pdf), U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix in Lubbock determined that the House of Representatives violated the Quorum Clause of the Constitution when it used a rule created in 2020 that permitted non-present members to be included in the quorum count and to vote by proxy.