A group of Georgia voters filed a legal challenge on Thursday to Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s candidacy for re-election in 2022.
The challenge, filed with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, alleges that Greene is constitutionally disqualified from public office under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, on the grounds that she helped facilitate the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
The voters are represented by Free Speech For People, a nonpartisan, non-profit legal advocacy organization with constitutional law expertise, which is serving as co-lead counsel in the matter, along with New York-based Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP. Bryan Sells, an Atlanta-based civil rights lawyer specializing in voting rights and election law, is serving as local counsel.
Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment, known as the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause, provides: “No Person shall be a Senator or Representative 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, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
The purpose of the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause, passed in the wake of the Civil War, is not to punish the oathbreaker but rather to protect the country. No criminal conviction or prior adjudication is required under the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause, although Greene would be able to seek judicial review of an adverse decision.
Anyone seeking to run for public office in Georgia “shall meet the constitutional and statutory qualifications for the office being sought.” Under Georgia’s candidacy challenge statute, once a challenge is filed, the Secretary of State must request a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge of the Office of State Administrative Hearings to determine whether the candidate is qualified for office. The burden of proof then shifts to the candidate, who must “affirmatively establish [their] eligibility for office.”
The challengers intend to issue subpoenas to Greene and take her deposition under oath, something that the U.S. House January 6 Select Committee has not yet done.
The challenge cites statements Greene made in the weeks leading up to the riots referring to the Jan. 6 confirmation of the 2020 presidential election results as “our 1776 moment” in an interview the day before in which she also accused President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of “treason” that she said is “punishable by death.”
“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,” said Ron Fein, legal director of Free Speech For People.
“The Constitution disqualifies from public office any elected officials who aided the insurrection, and we look forward to asking Rep. Greene about her involvement under oath.”
In January, voters in North Carolina, represented by Free Speech For People and North Carolina lawyers, filed a similar challenge against Representative Madison Cawthorn.
Last month, a federal district court judge in North Carolina issued an injunction blocking the North Carolina State Board of Elections from hearing the challenge. The voters have filed an expedited appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
