Peter Strzok, a veteran FBI counterintelligence official who worked on the Flynn case as part of Mueller's team, knew Contreras. On August 6, 2020, Contreras dismissed a lawsuit filed by House Republicans against U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that challenged proxy voting rules adopted during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. He ruled that the Constitution's "Speech or Debate Clause" prohibited lawsuits over Congress' legislative efforts. He concluded that "the Court can conceive of few other actions, besides actually debating, speaking, or voting, that could more accurately be described as 'legislative' than the regulation of how votes may be cast". On March 5, 2021, Contreras ruled that the states of Illinois, Nevada, and Virginia had ratified the Equal Rights Amendment too late – as it had occurred after the congressionally-imposed 1982 deadline – for the amendment to be valid. See also List of Hispanic/Latino American jurists References External links 1962 births Living people 21st-century American judges American people of Cuban descent Assistant United States Attorneys Florida State University alumni Hispanic and Latino American judges Jones Day people Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia Judges of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni