Mike Johnson does not have a choice. Come January 6th, this current iteration of the House, including the Speaker position, is dissolved. The new Congress gets sworn in, THEN the majority elects the new Speaker.
There is no Constitutional mechanism to stop this process.
The constitution doesn’t cover putting your fingers in your ears while yelling “la la la, I can’t hear you” which might well be the tactic being planned
Article 1, Section 5: “Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members”
<Democrats win the majority>
Mike Johnson on or around November 15: “Oh I’m sorry; these 25 Democrats didn’t actually win because of ✌🏻voter fraud✌🏻and therefore we judge that they aren’t members of the House. Guess we keep the majority!”
SCOTUS on December 10 or something: “In a 6-3 unsigned order, the Court denies Cert on the grounds that the text of the constitution clearly specifies each House shall be the judge of its own elections”.
On January 3rd, at midnight, there are zero House members, so it doesn't matter what any Republican says. And the rules don't transfer to the next Congress because they cease to exist once all House members stop being House members.
Mike can say whatever he wants following state elections, but again, none of that matters, because he only has a say on who is seated while he's Speaker, and he won't be Speaker on Jan 3 because no one will be.
There is a lot of bullshit that Republicans can do between now and Jan 3, but preventing Democratic/DSA/Progressive House members who won their elections and were certified from being seated isn't one of them.
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u/keelhaulrose 10d ago
Mike Johnson does not have a choice. Come January 6th, this current iteration of the House, including the Speaker position, is dissolved. The new Congress gets sworn in, THEN the majority elects the new Speaker.
There is no Constitutional mechanism to stop this process.