U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-Hendersonville, will not face a legal challenge to his candidacy based on claims that his actions on and around Jan. 6, 2021, violated a section of the U.S. Constitution meant to keep Confederates out of federal office, a federal judge ruled Friday.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Myers II, appointed by then-President Donald Trump in 2019, said there is a possible harm to democracy when political opponents use challenge statutes to keep opposing candidates for office off the ballot.
“The federal court is tasked with protecting the soap box, the ballot box and the jury box,” Myers said. “And when these fail, people proceed to the ammunition box.”
This case arrived in Myers’ courtroom after a left-leaning, good-governance nonprofit called Free Speech for People backed a challenge to Cawthorn’s candidacy back in January. They did so under a state law that says candidates can be prevented from being put on the ballot if a reasonable suspicion exists that they do not meet state or federal criteria for office.
In this case, that criteria was under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states that anyone who has taken an oath of office to support the Constitution and subsequently “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the nation, or aided people who did, cannot hold public office.
Cawthorn then sued the State Board of Elections, which oversees candidate challenges, in the Eastern District of North Carolina federal...
Image: Facebook/SAPS The IDAC has rubbished rumours that it has a J50 warrant of arrest for KZN provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi as “false”. This comes after re...