A group of voters in North Carolina have filed a lawsuit seeking to block Republican congressman Madison Cawthorn from running for re-election due to his involvement in the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the Capitol attack.
According to the Associated Press, lawyers for the 11 voters filed the suit to the State Board of Elections, contending that Cawthorn’s comments in the speech violate the 14th Amendment.
The 14th Amendment says 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 lawsuit says the events of Jan. 6 “amount to an insurrection” and Cawthorn’s speech at the rally provide a “reasonable suspicion or belief” that he helped facilitate it.
“As set forth in our complaint, the publicly available evidence, including Representative Cawthorn’s own statements and reports that he or his office coordinated with the January 6 organizers, establish reasonable suspicion that Representative Cawthorn aided the insurrection, thereby disqualifying him from federal office. We look forward to asking him about his involvement under oath,” Ron Fein, legal director of Free Speech For People, the group behind the lawsuit said.
Days after he was sworn in as the youngest member of Congress, Cawthorn told the crowd at the “Save America Rally” on the morning of the riot that “the Democrats, with all the fraud they have done in this election, the Republicans hiding and not fighting, they are trying to silence your voice. Make no mistake about it, they do not want you to be heard.”
He later voted against certifying Biden’s presidential victory, but he also signed a letter with other Republican lawmakers congratulating him on the win.
Cawthorn’s spokesperson Luke Ball dismissed the challenge to the lawmaker’s candidacy, writing in a statement: “Over 245,000 patriots from Western North Carolina elected Congressman Cawthorn to serve them in Washington. A dozen activists who are comically misinterpreting and twisting the 14th amendment for political gain will not distract him from that service.”
The state board scheduled a meeting Wednesday to create a five-member panel or panels from counties within the proposed 13th District required to hear the challenge, according to the AP. Cawthorn has the burden to “show by a preponderance of the evidence” that he’s qualified to run, state law says.
