United states

Judge rules Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green may run for re-election

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A judge in Georgia ruled on Friday that Marjorie’s Taylor Green (R-Ga.) May run for re-election after a group of voters challenged the congresswoman’s eligibility over allegations that she took part in the January 6, 2021 Capitol uprising. of the United States after the 2020 presidential election

State Administrative Justice Judge Charles Bodro presented his findings to Secretary of State Brad Rafensperger, who accepted them and said Green’s name would remain on the ballot.

“Judge Bodro issued his initial ruling on May 6, 2022, finding that the Challengers failed to prove their point by overwhelming evidence and that the defendant was qualified to be a candidate for the 14th Congressional District of Georgia. Judge Bodro’s initial decision and the findings of fact and legal conclusions are accepted, “Rafensperger said in his decision.

A group of voters in Georgia have launched a legal effort to disqualify Green from running for re-election for her alleged role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.

Coutorne fights the challenge of voting, accusing him of being a “rebel”

Green, 47, has been accused of frequently using language to incite violence in the US Capitol, including citing efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election as “our moment in 1776.” The Conservative MP denies having played a role in the event, which led to the deaths of five people and injuries to 140 law enforcement officers.

As she testified in April about her alleged role in the attack, Green said she could not remember calling on then-President Donald Trump to impose martial law as a way to stay in power.

“I don’t remember,” he said in response to questioning by a lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the case.

Free Speech for People, the campaign’s national election and finance reform group, challenged Georgia’s secretary of state in March, claiming that Green, who has built a reputation as one of Trump’s most ardent supporters, helped to facilitate a violent uprising aimed at preventing Congress from confirming Joe Biden’s victory.

The organization expressed disappointment with the judge’s decision, calling it a betrayal of the 14th Amendment.

“This decision betrays the main purpose of the fourteenth amendment’s disqualification clause and overlooks political violence as a tool to disrupt and annul free and fair elections,” the organization said in a statement on Friday. “We call on Secretary Rafensperger to reconsider the evidence presented in the case and to reject the judge’s recommendation. Marjorie Taylor Green helped facilitate the uprising on January 6, and according to the Constitution, she was disqualified from her future position.

The challenge alleges that Green’s actions violated a provision of the 14th Amendment and thus made it inadmissible to run for re-election.

Dissection of the proposal to disqualify Marjorie Taylor Green for insurrection

The rarely cited provision states that no one may serve in Congress “who, having previously taken the oath as a member of Congress … to support the Constitution of the United States, will take part in an uprising or revolt against it.”

The amendment was ratified shortly after the Civil War. The provision was intended to prevent lawmakers fighting for the Confederacy from being re-elected to Congress.

Any voter from Georgia who is eligible to vote for a candidate may challenge that candidate’s qualification by filing a written complaint within two weeks of the ranking deadline under state law. The Secretary of State must notify the candidate of the challenge before requesting a hearing before a judge of administrative law. The judge then conducts a hearing before presenting the findings to the Secretary of State, who then determines whether the candidate is qualified.