Georgia Judge Says Legal Effort To Remove Republican Marjorie Taylor-Greene From Ballot Can Proceed
A federal judge in Georgia on Monday gave the green light to a lawsuit by voters that would disqualify Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene from running for re-election in November over her support of the Jan. 6 Capitol rioters.
Judge Amy Totenburg, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, issued a 73-page ruling that allowed a lawsuit filed to proceed to bar Greene from the ballot.
The challenge was filed in March by campaign finance group Free Speech for People alleging that Greene conspired to facilitate the Capitol Riot. The lawsuit relied on a little-known provision of the 14th Amendment that bars anyone who violates an oath of allegiance to the Constitution from serving in Congress. The provision is known as the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause.
On Jan. 6, 2021, the Capitol was attacked by a mob of Donald Trump supporters who attempted to stop the certification of Joe Biden's election win. Many of the rioters verbally threatened to kill members of Congress, including then-Vice President Mike Pence, and others brutally assaulted police officers defending the Capitol.
Greene’s opponents allege that she facilitated the Capitol Riot, a charge that was vigorously denied in her own countersuit. Judge Totenburg however denied this attempt to nullify the election challenge on the grounds that she failed to meet the “burden of persuasion.”
“The novelty of the factual and historical posture of this case…has made resolution of the complex legal issues at stake here particularly demanding,” Totenburg wrote in her ruling.
Greene’s challenge mirrors a previously unsuccessful one filed against Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., that also tried to disqualify him from seeking re-election. A judge however ruled in Cawthorn’s favor on March 4.
Greene, a fervent Trump loyalist and a firebrand within the Republican Party, has urged her party to fight back against attempts to disqualify other candidates from running. In an appearance Monday on Fox News, she urged Republicans to seek retaliatory actions against Democrats.
"The Republican Party needs to fight harder,” she told host Tucker Carlson. “I think there’s another way to play this game."
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