Two Republican lawmakers announced a lawsuit this week that seeks to challenge the constitutionality of the fines imposed on members of the House for failing to go through the metal detectors.
The story: Reps. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and Andrew Clyde (R-GA) argue in their lawsuit that the rule which requires members to complete security screening to enter the House chamber targets Republican lawmakers and is unconstitutional.
They claim that House Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) herself has avoided the metal detectors on at least one occasion and that there were other Democratic lawmakers who set off the metal detectors without undergoing further screening, but according to the complaint, faced no consequences for breaking the rule.
The complaint also says that that the screening process has caused some GOP House members to miss voters on the House floor.
“Upon information and belief, Speaker Pelosi has instituted an unconstitutional policy of enforcing the Screening Rule against only members of the Republican minority in the House of Representatives, and exempting members of the Democratic majority from its enforcement, resulting in only Republican members being fined and having their congressional salaries reduced, all for the purpose of creating a false narrative for the political benefit of the House Democratic majority,” the lawsuit read.
It further said that the fines amount to “a means of harassing democratically-elected representatives who are members of the opposition party in the House of Representatives.”
The defendants in the lawsuit are House Sergeant at Arms William Walker and House Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Catherine Szpindor as it is their duty to enforce the rule.
How we got here: Both Gohmert and Clyde were fined for breaking the Screening rule earlier this year.
Gohmert was fined because he declined to undergo a second security screening after briefly leaving the House chamber to visit the restroom. Clyde was fined twice. According to the lawsuit, the lawmaker pushed back against a second screening after his phone set off the magnetometer because he was trying to get into the chamber to vote.
The GOP lawmakers appealed the fines but the House Ethics Committee upheld them.
The fines, $5,000 for the first offense and $10,000 for subsequent offenses, have to be paid from lawmakers’ salaries. Lawmakers are prohibited from using campaign money to cover the fines.
