A federal judge dismissed an anti-mask lawsuit against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday, brought last year by three far-right-wing members of Congress, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. The three extremist Republicans argued that the mask mandate, instituted to protect their fellow members of Congress and their staffs, was a violation of the First and the Twenty-Seventh Amendments.
The judge disagreed.
U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Thomas Massie (R-KY), and Ralph Norman (R-SC) “said they were fined for entering the House to vote without wearing masks in May 2021,” Bloomberg Law reports. They were initially fined $500, but Congresswoman Greene has since racked up thousands of dollars in fines since last May.
“The representatives said they wanted to engage in a ‘protest against the double standard being enforced,’ and to demonstrate ‘the well-founded beliefs’ they shared that mask wearing ‘is not scientifically based’ and ‘not necessary for the vaccinated or naturally immune.'”
It was clear during oral arguments in December that Senior U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, a Bush 43 appointee, disagreed.
“Maybe if we took this pandemic seriously we wouldn’t have so many Americans in the grave,” Judge Walton said at the time, admonishing the three extremists.
In his ruling, Judge Walton was also dismissive of their victimization claim of being discriminated against for what the three called, “contrary viewpoint-based symbolic speech.”
Judge Walton also rejected their false claim of “recent scientific findings that the use of face coverings has no appreciable effect on slowing or halting the spread of COVID-19.”
Walton “said the consensus within the scientific community is clear that masks—and, in particular, well-fitting, protective masks—are effective in slowing the spread of the Covid-19 virus.”
A large part of their argument was the 27th Amendment makes it unconstitutional for them to be fined, which they claimed is a reduction in salary. The judge also tossed out that argument.
Here’s Congressman Massie complaining on Fox Business last year. “We’re ready to take this all the way to the Supreme Court,” he declared.
None of the three members of Congress made any reference to having lost their lawsuit on social media Wednesday, but they did hold a theatrical press conference last year just before oral arguments: