CHARLOTTE, N.C. — U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a Republican from North Carolina, won a major court victory Friday when a federal judge ruled that voters shouldn’t be allowed to try to have him ruled ineligible to run for office.
A group of voters from Cawthorn’s district had filed a challenge with the State Board of Elections, claiming that Cawthorn should be banned from the ballot. They cited his actions supporting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Cawthorn has denied their allegations that he may have helped plan the attack.
Those who took over the Capitol were trying to pressure members of Congress into voting to overturn the 2020 election results and keep Republican President Donald Trump in office, even though he lost the election to Democratic President Joe Biden.
Cawthorn’s opponents say the Jan. 6 attack was an attempted insurrection — a word that top GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has also used to describe that day that resulted in deaths and injuries. The opponents say the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution bans those who have engaged in insurrection against the government from holding federal office such as a seat in Congress.
But Cawthorn had argued that a pro-Confederate law passed during Reconstruction allowed many ex-insurrectionists to run for office, despite the 14th Amendment, and that it should apply to him too. Federal District Court Judge Richard Myers, a Trump appointee, agreed and ruled in Cawthorn’s favor.
The challengers immediately said they would appeal the ruling.
“The ruling must be reversed on appeal, and the right of voters to bring this challenge to Cawthorn’s eligibility must be preserved,” said Ron Fein, the legal director of a group that has been representing the voters in the case, called Free Speech For People.
The News & Observer previously reported that national legal experts say that even if the challengers ultimately lost their case at the elections board, they could still get something of a win by forcing Cawthorn to testify under oath about what actions he did or didn’t take before, during and after the Jan. 6 attack.
But Myers’ ruling Friday would prevent that from happening, since he stopped the challenge altogether.
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