Attempt to disqualify Marjorie Taylor Greene from reelection fails

A state administrative judge Friday ruled against a lawsuit attempting to throw U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome, off the ballot based on the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, citing insufficient evidence.

Lawyers for several voters who live in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District argued at a hearing two weeks ago that Greene should be declared ineligible to run for a second term in the House because she sought to overthrow the federal government through her actions following the November 2020 presidential election leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, adopted by Congress shortly after the Civil War, prohibits members of Congress from seeking reelection if they have tried to overthrow the government. At the time, the provision was aimed at those who had fought for the South during the Civil War.

Greene testified for about three hours at the hearing, denying advance knowledge of plans to commit violence at the Capitol on the day Congress certified Democrat Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

“The court concludes that the evidence in this matter is insufficient to establish that Rep. Greene, having ‘previously taken an oath as a member of Congress . . . to support the Constitution of the United States . . . engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or [gave] aid or comfort to the enemies thereof” under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution,” State Administrative Judge Charles Beaudrot wrote in a 19-page decision. “As this is the sole basis for challengers’ suit, the court concludes that Rep. Greene is qualified to be a candidate for representative for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.”

Greene, who has become among the most prolific fundraisers in Congress in her first term, is favored to win the May 24 Republican primary against five underfunded GOP challengers, then go on to win reelection in the heavily Republican district. The 14th stretches from Georgia’s northwest border with Tennessee south to Polk and Paulding counties and into southwestern Cobb County.

Beaudrot’s decision is not final. The ultimate say in whether Greene remains on the ballot is up to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.

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