Judge tosses Marjorie Taylor Greene’s lawsuit over mask fines
By Tia Mitchell, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
March 11, 2022
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Washington has thrown out a lawsuit filed by Georgia U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and two other conservative lawmakers challenging the fines they faced for refusing to wear masks on the House floor. Greene joined U.S. Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Ralph Norman of South Carolina in filing a court challenge in July hoping to recoup penalties they faced after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed through new enforcement rules for an existing mask mandate.
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton wrote in a Wednesday ruling that the case had no merit because Pelosi and the staffers who enforced the fines by docking lawmakers pay could not be sued for decisions made in their government capacity. Walton also disagreed with the plaintiffs’ arguments that the mask fines amounted to an illegal reduction in their annual salary. The 27th Amendment prohibits any law from changing members’ compensation before the next election.
Walton disregarded the claim that the mask fines violated the plaintiffs’ First Amendment protections of free speech, which their lawyers claimed should be invoked because the three lawmakers chose not to wear masks as a form of protest. Greene, Massie and Norman have filed an appeal.
(snip)
While Massie and Norman’s protest was limited, Greene continued to show up on the House floor without a mask for the rest of 2021 and into 2022.
She eventually accumulated more than $100,000 in fines that were docked from her salary, which is $174,000 a year.
(snip)
https://www.ajc.com/politics/judge-tosses-marjorie-taylor-greenes-lawsuit-over-mask-fines/G4UTWBYCXBFQJGF2XGTQ2E7CIU/
(emphasis mine)
Was curious how much she racked up with her clown show act.
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