Judge appears likely to allow January 6-related candidacy challenge against Marjorie Taylor Greene

[lightbright]

Atlanta (CNN)A federal judge signaled Friday that she'll likely allow a group of Georgia voters to move forward with their constitutional challenge against GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, which claims she can't run for reelection because she aided the January 6 insurrectionists.
Federal Judge Amy Totenberg of the Northern District of Georgia said during a lengthy hearing that she has "significant questions and concerns" about a recent ruling in a similar case, which blocked the same challenge against Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a North Carolina Republican.
A group of Georgia voters, backed by a coalition of constitutional scholars and liberal activists, lodged the challenge against Greene last month with state election officials. Greene then filed her own lawsuit in federal court, asking Totenberg to shut down the state-level proceedings.
Totenberg said she will issue a ruling next week, likely on Monday. That's two days before a state judge is scheduled to hold a hearing on the underlying question of whether Greene engaged in or aided the January 6, 2021, insurrection and whether that disqualifies her from office.

James Bopp Jr., a conservative lawyer who is representing Greene, said the challenge was "50 pages of newspaper articles, hearsay and political hyperbole." He warned during the court hearing that if the challenge is allowed to proceed, it will embolden liberal groups to try to disqualify former President Donald Trump from running for reelection in 2024.
The hearing Friday was the latest chapter in the seemingly elusive efforts to hold prominent GOP officials responsible for January 6, which are playing out in a major congressional inquiry, a federal criminal probe that has largely focused on the rioters themselves and civil litigation.

The 14th Amendment of the US Constitution prohibits officeholders from returning to elected positions if they supported an insurrection. The challengers claim that Greene can't run for reelection because she "aided" the January 6 insurrection, allegedly planned with protest organizers and "encouraged" the violence that disrupted the Electoral College certification.
They cited Greene's own comments, including one video where she explicitly said she opposed the peaceful transfer of power to President Joe Biden "because he did not win this election."
Lawyers for Greene say she isn't an insurrectionist and that disqualifying her would violate her First Amendment rights. She previously told CNN that she had "never encouraged political violence and never will." A spokesman said she wasn't involved in planning any protests on January 6.
High-stakes showdown
The anti-Greene challenge was brought by the same groups that unsuccessfully tried to remove Cawthorn from the GOP primary ballot in North Carolina. A Trump-appointed federal judge shut down that challenge, ruling that a Civil War amnesty law passed in 1872 still applies and therefore shielded Cawthorn from being disqualified over his role in the January 6 insurrection.
Cawthorn has denied any wrongdoing regarding January 6 and says he isn't an insurrectionist.
Some of the leading experts on the Constitution's "disqualification clause" criticized that judge's conclusion. And on Friday, so did Totenberg, the Obama-appointed judge in Greene's case.
"I don't think that the Amnesty Act likely was prospective," Totenberg said, siding with the challengers, who said the 1872 law was retrospective and didn't protect future insurrectionists.
Bryan Sells, attorney for the challengers, who are backed by the legal advocacy group Free Speech For People, piled on, saying, "The absurdity of his argument shines through like a beacon."
Greene hired the same lawyer, Bopp, who prevailed in the Cawthorn case. He noted on Friday that no one has been charged with insurrection related to January 6, "despite all the resources of the Justice Department and FBI." He also said removing Greene from the ballot would be akin to "stripping voters of their right to vote and upending democracy right before an election."

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Marjorie Taylor Greene: Judge appears likely to allow Jan. 6 candidacy challenge against congresswoman - CNNPolitics

 

[lightbright]

Ugly loudmouth pickle nosed cac's rattled now.....


Legal effort to remove Greene from Ga. ballot can proceed, judge rules

A group of voters alleges that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) helped facilitate the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

A federal judge ruled Monday that a group of Georgia voters can proceed with their legal effort to disqualify Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) from running for reelection because of her alleged role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.

Free Speech for People, a national election and campaign finance reform group, filed the challenge in March with the Georgia secretary of state’s office, alleging that Greene, who has built a reputation as one of former president Donald Trump’s most fervent supporters, helped facilitate the violent insurrection aimed at preventing Congress from confirming Joe Biden’s win.
The organization also filed a similar lawsuit on behalf of North Carolina voters to prevent Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) from running for reelection because of his alleged role in the storming of the Capitol but was initially unsuccessful.
The challenges claim that the lawmakers’ actions violate a provision of the 14th Amendment and thus make them ineligible to run for reelection.
The rarely cited provision of the amendment states that no one can serve in Congress “who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.”
The amendment was ratified shortly after the Civil War. The provision in question was meant to prevent lawmakers who fought for the Confederacy from being reelected to Congress.
Greene, 47, has been accused of frequently using language to incite violence on the U.S. Capitol, including referring to efforts to challenge the results declaring Biden the winner of the 2020 election as “our 1776 moment.” She denies that she played a role in the event that led to the deaths of five people and injuries to 140 members of law enforcement.
Greene filed a lawsuit earlier this month requesting that a judge block Georgia officials from enforcing the state law being used by Free Speech for People in its challenge, arguing that it is unconstitutional. Greene also “vigorously denies that she aided and engaged in insurrection to obstruct the peaceful transfer of presidential power,” her lawsuit says.
Judge Amy Totenberg, who was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia by President Barack Obama, denied Greene’s request for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order in a 73-page ruling, saying that the lawmaker did not meet the “burden of persuasion.”
“This case involves a whirlpool of colliding constitutional interests of public import,” Totenberg wrote. “The novelty of the factual and historical posture of this case — especially when assessed in the context of a preliminary injunction motion reviewed on a fast track — has made resolution of the complex legal issues at stake here particularly demanding.”
While expressing her disappointment with the lawsuit, Greene suggested Monday night on Fox News that Republicans could look into retaliatory efforts to disqualify Democratic lawmakers from reelection.
“The Republican Party needs to fight harder,” she told television host Tucker Carlson. “If you can challenge any representative’s candidacy or elected officeholder, I bet we could round up some Republican voters who did not like Kamala Harris funding rioters — criminal rioters — out of jail or [Representatives] Ilhan Omar or Cori Bush or Maxine Waters in inciting riots.”
“I think there’s another way to play this game,” Greene added.
Vice President Harris did not provide funding to get rioters released from jail. But following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, a Black Minneapolis resident, by a police officer, Harris — then a senator from California — tweeted information about the Minnesota Freedom Fund, an organization that helped provide cash for bail for those protesting racism and police violence.
Just weeks after Floyd’s death, it raised an astonishing $35 million, in part because of tweets such as the one by Harris.
In her appearance on Fox, Greene also complained about having to appear in court.
“I have to go to court on Friday and actually be questioned about something I’ve never been charged with and something I was completely against,” she said.
Ron Fein, legal director of Free Speech for People, told The Washington Post that his organization looks forward to questioning Greene under oath about her involvement in the Jan. 6 attack.
“It’s rare for any conspirator, let alone a Member of Congress, to publicly admit that the goals of their actions are preventing a peaceful transfer of power and the death of the president-elect and Speaker of the House, but that’s exactly what Marjorie Taylor Greene did,” he said in a statement. “The Constitution disqualifies from public office any elected officials who aided the insurrection, and we look forward to asking Representative Greene about her involvement under oath.”
Any Georgia voter eligible to vote for a candidate can challenge that candidate’s qualifications by filing a written complaint within two weeks after the deadline for qualifying, according to state law. The secretary of state has to notify the candidate of the challenge before requesting a hearing before an administrative law judge. The judge goes on to hold a hearing before presenting findings to the secretary of state before the state official determines whether the candidate is qualified.
James Bopp Jr., a lawyer for Greene, did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
Georgia will begin mailing absentee ballots next week for its May 24 primary.

Greene was recently mocked by late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel for contacting U.S. Capitol Police over his jokes about her — the same police she refused to honor last June when she voted against awarding them the Congressional Gold Medal for defending the Capitol and lawmakers during the insurrection. Greene had called some in her party “pro-pedophile” for supporting the confirmation of Justice-designate Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.


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Lawsuit to stop Marjorie Taylor Greene's reelection run can proceed, judge says - The Washington Post

 

[bdquest9]

The 1/6 commission needs to release all the names of those treasonous conspirators who currently hold office or are seeking re-election and the same thing needs to happen to them.

 

[easy_b]

The 1/6 commission needs to release all the names of those treasonous conspirators who currently hold office or are seeking re-election and the same thing needs to happen to them.

They will they waiting until the summer

 

[HeathCliff]

This is actually a smart chess move.

Now the trifling kkkunt will be forced to testify under oath. Please plead the fifth you bitch. Please plead the fifth.

 

[easy_b]

This is actually a smart chess move.

Now the trifling kkkunt will be forced to testify under oath. Please plead the fifth you bitch. Please plead the fifth.

That’s exactly what she is going to do lol

 

[lightbright]

This is actually a smart chess move.

Now the trifling kkkunt will be forced to testify under oath. Please plead the fifth you bitch. Please plead the fifth.

That wheelchair bound Nazi Cawthorne used the same argument she's trying, but the N. Carolina judge sided with him instead...


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[illdog]

In situations like this...i always ask myself..how would my boy dj killa vlad handle her typa b.s. back home.