In May 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, McCarthy and House Republicans filed a lawsuit to stop the House of Representatives from allowing remote proxy voting by representatives, a measure that had been introduced under Speaker Nancy Pelosi to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the Capitol. McCarthy and the other plaintiffs claimed that a quorum of members had to be physically present in the chamber to Conduct business; Pelosi defended the rule as a critical public health measure and pointed to the provision of the Constitution authorizing each chamber of Congress to establish its own procedural rules. In August 2020, a federal judge dismissed McCarthy's lawsuit against Pelosi, ruling that the House has "absolute immunity from civil suit" under the Constitution's Speech or Debate Clause.