a2 eZ re the washington post.wednesday, march 11 , 2020
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2 p.m. | the House Homeland
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the novel coronavirus, with
testimony from Ken cuccinelli, the
acting deputy secretary of
homeland security. For
developments, visit
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what members of Congress
should d o during next week’s
recess, w ith m any constituent
meetings now in limbo.
“What a lot of us are looking
for — and still are not satisfied
that we have — are clear
institutional policies to ensure
that we as members of Congress
do not b ecome a vector of
transmission,” Rep. Tom
Malinowski (D-N.J.) s aid after
Tuesday’s caucus.
Still, one key difference
between anthrax in 2001 and t he
coronavirus today i s the national
political mood.
In t he fall of 2001, uncertainty
dominated t he Washington
psyche. For months afterward,
mail to the C apitol complex,
along with the surrounding
neighborhood, was redirected to
a plant that zapped l etters t o
make sure a ny p otential chemical
or biological agent was
neutralized. Investigators could
not determine who sent the
letters, w ith initial probes
focusing on overseas t errorists.
Ye t, i n the wake of 9/11,
Congress h ad rallied together,
even singing “ God Bless America”
in bipartisan f ashion a few hours
after the a ttacks o n New York and
Washington.
After t he a nthrax attacks
closed t he largest Senate office
buildings, senators and s taff
shared s pace with other offices.
Leahy recalled a few senators
setting up in his hideaway office
in the Capitol.
To day, c oming amid the 2 020
presidential campaign,
Republicans a re a ccusing
Democrats of trying t o pin the
blame on President Trump. “We
might want to stop trying t o
politicize t he d amn p andemic,
not a good t hing. We h aven’t d one
that before,” Roberts said.
[email protected]processed all congressional mail,
prompting the G OP majority t o
adjourn t he chamber f or the rest
of the w eek.
They w ere ridiculed for e nding
the w eek so quickly.
“WIMPS,” t he New York Post
declared in a mocking headline.
The next morning, t he S enate
voted, 96 to 1, to fund military
construction projects. E arly the
next week, the Congress w as back
in session, going almost full-bore
until a few days before Christmas
to handle the large post-9/
agenda.
Veteran lawmakers say the
coronavirus has created m ore
uncertainty than even those early
days of the war in A fghanistan
when the a nthrax letters started
arriving in the Capitol.
“It was an entirely d ifferent
thing. There, we knew exactly
what we had. Here, we don’t
know what w e have. What’s going
to be d ecided, I don’t k now,” S en.
Patrick J. L eahy (D-Vt.) said
Monday.
Leahy was the second
Democrat t argeted w ith an
anthrax letter back i n 2001, but
he had a lready put a hold on all
his mail arriving at t he Capitol
because three o ther letters — sent
to the National Enquirer and TV
news personalities — had been
uncovered b efore h is and
Daschle’s l etters were received.
Now, m ore than 4,000 h ave
died worldwide, i ncluding m ore
than 20 Americans, from the flu-
like virus. While no lawmaker or
congressional a ide has
contracted coronavirus yet, the
nationwide ranks continue to
grow each d ay a s more Americans
get access to tests for t he virus.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) told
reporters Monday that h e has
allowed some staff to telework to
avoid any health threats.
Others remain confused a bout$27 million.
Ye t the S enate continued its
business without any lengthy
break, pushing ahead with the
national security a genda
following the S ept. 11, 2 001,
terrorist a ttacks.
On Oct. 15, 2001, a Monday, a
staffer to then-Majority L eader
Thomas A. Daschle ( D-S.D.)
opened a letter i n his Hart office,
discovering a threatening note
and the a nthrax.
Shortly after 5:30 p.m. t he
same day, t he Senate held a
procedural vote on a government
funding b ill. Two days l ater, as
health o fficials realized the
anthrax had s pread d eep into the
ventilation s ystem, they ordered
the Hart building s hut
indefinitely.
But 4 o’clock that afternoon,
the S enate plowed a head a nd
approved, on a 95-to-3 vote, a bill
to fund the Interior D epartment.
That s ame day investigators
uncovered t races of anthrax in a
mail room i n a House o ffice t hata few must-pass i tems l ater this
week and leave town u ntil late
April.
“We just don’t k now where we
are, how serious t his is g oing to
be,” s aid Sen. Pat Roberts (R-
Kan.), who said he appreciates
daily updates sent to his o ffice
from Vice President Pence, who is
coordinating the r esponse.
“There’s a group of senators who
say we ought to shut down, for
our employees’ standpoint.”
It’s d ramatically d ifferent from
the c ongressional response to
anthrax attacks i n October 2001,
when letters sent to a pair of
Democratic senators were l aced
with the bacteria that contained
the d eadly disease.
A few dozen w ere exposed t o
anthrax, including two postal
workers who died, a nd t housands
took antibiotics as a precaution.
The Hart S enate Office Building
— in which h alf t he s enators have
their personal legislative offices
— shuttered for more than three
months at a cleanup cost ofCongress f aced an
attack before f rom
a concerted e ffort
to spread a deadly
infectious disease,
but t oday’s adversary has
produced a far different set of
reactions, ranging from
confusion to fear.
The combination of the lack o f
medical expertise and a political
environment that is quite
poisonous, metaphorically
speaking, has left C ongress in a
state of suspended animation.
Congressional leaders on Tuesday
rejected calls for the House and
Senate to leave t own a nd adopt
the “social distancing” t hat some
experts suggest c ould stem the
spread of the coronavirus.
“We are the captains of the
ship. We a re the last to leave,”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-
Calif.) t old her caucus during a
closed-door meeting Tuesday,
according to Democrats in
attendance.
Pelosi’s comments c ame after
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and
others suggested that Congress
should a t least a djourn a nd allow
lawmakers to work f rom their
districts and, i f necessary, v ote
electronically. Democrats said
that Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), a
Navy pilot, had already opposed
abandoning the Capitol, u sing the
captain of a ship r eference.
On Monday Democratic aides
acknowledged t he w eek’s
schedule was f luid, especially
after up to six members of the
House and Senate announced
they were quarantining
themselves a fter contact w ith
someone a t a conference w ho was
later diagnosed w ith the v irus.
With three o f the next six
weeks a lready s lated to be the
congressional f orm of spring
break, some r ank-and-file
lawmakers want t o just concludeAs virus spreads, Congress asks: Should we stay or should we go?
@PKCapitol
Paul Kanesamuel corum/agence France-Presse/getty Images
As members of Congress contemplate how to handle the spreading
coronavirus, Sen. Ron Wyden has allowed some staff to telework.BY ROBERT BARNESJustice Sonia Sotomayor will
not participate in one of the two
cases the Supreme Court will
hear in April to decide whether
the Constitution prohibits states
from dictating how members of
the electoral college cast their
votes for president.
The clerk of the court in-
formed lawyers in the case Tues-
day that Sotomayor realized she
is friends with one of the parties
in one of the cases, from Colora-
do. Sotomayor will still partici-
pate in the other case, from the
state of Washington.
“The justice believes that her
impartiality might reasonably be
questioned due to her friendship
with respondent Polly Baca,” Su-preme Court Clerk Scott S. Harris
wrote. “The initial conflict check
conducted in Justice Sotomayor’s
Chambers did not identify this
potential conflict.”
That is somewhat surprising.
According to news reports, Baca
and Sotomayor consider each
other old family friends, and
Baca attended Sotomayor’s con-
firmation hearing. According to
an article in the Denver Post,
Baca organized a gathering in
Denver to watch the confirma-
tion vote, and Sotomayor joined
them via speakerphone.
“Polly, you know how much I
love you, and how much I love
your senators, who both voted for
me,” Sotomayor said, according
to the report.
Justices decide whether to re-
cuse themselves from a case, even
though President Trump recently
called on Sotomayor and Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg to recuse
themselves from anything
“Trump-related” that came be-
fore the court. Neither respond-
ed, and this case is not one thatcould provide an obvious parti-
san advantage.
It i s rare but not unheard of for
a justice to realize after a case has
been accepted that there is a
personal connection or that the
justice was involved in the case
previously.
In the electors case, Polly Baca
is a party, but it is another elector,
Michael Baca, who has received
the most attention. (Michael
Baca says the two are not relat-
ed.)
While Polly Baca and another
elector, Robert Nemanich, chal-
lenged Colorado’s requirement
that electors vote for the winner
of the statewide vote — in 2016, it
was Hillary Clinton — both even-
tually voted for her.
Michael Baca attempted to
vote for Republican John Kasich,
as part of an effort to deny the
presidency to Trump by electing
a compromise Republican. Mi-
chael Baca was replaced by an
alternate after a court ruled that
the state’s electors were required
by law to vote for the candidatewho won Colorado’s vote.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for
the 10th Circuit eventually ruled
against Colorado.
The Supreme Court has never
fully addressed whether states
may punish or replace “faithless”
presidential electors who refuse
to support the winner of their
state’s popular vote.
Lower courts have split on the
question, and both red and blue
states urged the justices to settle
the matter in advance of the
“white hot” glare of the 2020
election. They say they fear a
handful of independent-minded
members of the electoral college
deciding the next president.
The federal appeals court said
electors were free to vote as they
choose.
“While the Constitution grants
the states plenary power to ap-
point their electors, it does not
provide the states the power to
interfere once voting begins, to
remove an elector, to direct the
other electors to disregard the
removed elector’s vote or to ap-point a new elector to cast a
replacement vote,” wrote Judge
Carolyn B. McHugh.
In the 2016 election, 10 elec-
tors attempted to freelance and
vote for someone other than Clin-
ton or Trump.
In the Washington case, a ma-
jority of the state Supreme Court
said the Constitution “explicitly
confers broad authority on the
states to dictate the manner and
mode of appointing presidential
electors.” Additionally, nothing i n
the document “suggests that elec-
tors have discretion to cast their
votes without limitation or re-
striction by the state legislature.”
It ruled against three electors
who voted for former secretary of
state Colin Powell instead of Clin-
ton, and upheld the Washington
law requiring electors to support
their nominee of their party or be
subject to a civil fine of up to
$1,000.
The cases are Chiafalo v. State
of Washington and Colorado De-
partment of State v. Baca.
[email protected]Sotomayor recuses from 1 of 2 high court electoral college cases
Justice is friend of party
in Colorado proceeding,
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