Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva faces an uphill battle in her lawsuit to allow someone other than Speaker Mike Johnson administer her oath to be Arizona’s 7th District representative, experts said.

Grijalva and the state filed the lawsuit in federal court in Washington earlier this week, arguing that Johnson has “unlawfully interfered” with her ability to serve in the House after refusing to swear her in for nearly a month after winning a special election in September.

But federal courts don’t typically weigh in on these sorts of disputes, experts said, and the speaker has wide latitude in how he runs the chamber under House rules.

Derek Muller, a law professor at Notre Dame Law School who focuses on election law, called the case a “surefire loser” where the courts were unlikely to decide

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