In a landmark decision, a federal judge in Texas has ruled that a $1.7 trillion government funding bill was unconstitutionally passed in 2022 because lawmakers voted by proxy rather than in person due to a pandemic-era rule.
U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, issued a memorandum opinion and order on Feb. 27, finding that lawmakers violated the Constitution’s Quorum Clause when, in December 2022, they passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, the largest ever spending package in U.S. history.
The Biden administration, which was sued over the matter by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, argued that the court didn’t have the power to address the issue “because it cannot look to extrinsic evidence to question whether a bill became law,” per the order….
