One of the three Republican lawmakers who are suing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after being fined for not wearing masks on the House floor has tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Associated Press.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R. S.C) said he began experiencing minor symptoms Thursday morning. A subsequent COVID test came back positive. Norman says he is fully vaccinated and will be in quarantine for the next ten days.
The House Ethics Committee announced last week that it was upholding fines against several GOP lawmakers that were levied in May after the lawmakers protested a requirement to wear masks on the House floor.
Norman along with other Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia) and Thomas Massie (Kentucky) sued Pelosi seeking a determination from the court that their $500 fines are unconstitutional, and to bar the fines from being imposed.
“The masking requirement was an attempt to prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, medicine, and science, despite a deep divide over these issues of opinion,” lawyers for the members wrote, according to AP.
“It has been used to force Plaintiffs and other members of the minority party to be instruments for fostering public adherence to this ideological point of view that Plaintiffs find unacceptable,” they added.
Norman is the second member of Congress from South Carolina to test positive for the coronavirus this week. Sen. Lindsey Graham announced he tested positive on Monday.
Its also worth noting that Greene has declined to say whether she has been vaccinated and Massie has publicly stated that he chose not to get vaccinated because he’s tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies, according to the Hill.
