Congressman Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) is suing members of the North Carolina State Board of Elections on Monday after an attempt to boot him off the ballot on charges of “insurrection or rebellion.”
What it Means: Congressman Cawthorn’s lawsuit argues that the North Carolina statute “allowing people to challenge a candidacy is unconstitutional in part because it places the burden of proof on the candidate to show that he or she is in fact qualified,” according to the Washington Examiner.
Context: Left-wing activists tried to argue that Cawthorn was not eligible to be on the ballot because of his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021 “insurrection” (which resulted in not a single participant being brought on “insurrection” charges), makes him illegible from holding office. “The 14th Amendment of the Constitution bars those who ‘engaged in insurrection or rebellion’ from holding office,” reports the Examiner.
What People Are Saying: “I love this country and have never engaged in, or would ever engage in, an insurrection against the United States,” Cawthorn said in a statement. “Regardless of this fact, the Disqualification clause and North Carolina’s Challenge Statute is being used as a weapon by liberal Democrats to attempt to defeat our democracy by having state bureaucrats, rather than the People, choose who will represent North Carolina in Congress.”
“Marc Elias, the Democrat lawyer behind the Trump Russia hoax, announced a few months ago a nationwide effort to disqualify about two dozen Republican members of Congress under this bizarre legal theory. Rep. Cawthorn is just the tip of Elias’s spear,” James Bopp Jr., Cawthorn’s lead counsel, said.
