(FixThisNation.com) – On Tuesday, a federal judge in Texas found that the passing of the $1.7 trillion government funding bill had been unconstitutional. They noted that the bill had been passed in 2022 using a pandemic-era rule that gave U.S. House of Representatives members the right to vote by proxy rather than requiring them to be present in person.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had called for the courts to block a provision of the funding bill that would allow pregnant workers to benefit from extensive legal protection.
U.S. District Judge Wesley Hendrix had also reviewed the request and had put out a “limited ruling” that covered only one of the two provisions that Paxton had been looking to block.
Former President Trump appointee Hendrix had found that the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act had been passed wrongfully and he thus blocked the law from being used in the state. The bill in question had first been enacted in December 2022 and would require employers to provide pregnant workers with reasonable accommodations.
In his ruling, Hendrix had also pointed out that his injunction was applicable to all state government employees.
Last year, Paxton had filed a lawsuit in which they argued that the federal spending package had been passed unconstitutionally as over half of the House of Representatives had not physically attended the vote, and yet were still allowed to vote by proxy.
The rule that allowed Representatives to vote by proxy in the House was ditched in 2022 after the Republicans had taken control of the House.
Copyright 2024, FixThisNation.com
