Federal judge in Texas rules congressional passage of 2022 spending bill unconstitutional
A federal judge in Texas on Tuesday ruled that a $1.7 trillion government funding bill was unconstitutionally passed in 2022 through a pandemic-era rule that allowed lawmakers in the House of Representatives to vote by proxy rather than in person.
A federal judge in Texas on Tuesday ruled that a $1.7 trillion government funding bill was unconstitutionally passed in 2022 through a pandemic-era rule that allowed lawmakers in the House of Representatives to vote by proxy rather than in person.
U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix in Lubbock reached that conclusion as he granted Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s request to block a provision of that bill that gave pregnant workers stronger legal protections.
The judge called the scope of his ruling “limited,” and said it did not block all of the spending law. Texas had only sought to block two provisions ultimately.
Hendrix, an appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump, blocked the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act from being enforced against the state as an employer after finding the funding bill was wrongly passed.
That law requires employers to provide pregnant workers with reasonable accommodations. The injunction Hendrix issued only applies to state government employees and not other workers in Texas.
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