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Obama Judge Signals Challenge To Keep MTG Off Ballot Likely to Proceed

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


A federal judge hinted that a legal challenge to keep Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) off the ballot ahead of the fall midterm elections while challenging her fitness for office may get a chance to proceed.

U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg of the Northern District of Georgia, an Obama appointee, suggested that she could allow the challenge to move forward, saying in a hearing that she had “significant questions and concerns” about another federal judge’s decision in North Carolina to block a similar challenge against Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.).

In addition, Totenberg said he would likely render a decision sometime next week, according to CNN.

Newsweek adds:

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The state-level challenge to Greene’s fitness for office comes from a group of voters in Georgia, who claim that she is not fit to hold political office due to her alleged aiding of the Capitol rioters. The challenge from this group has received the backing of various left-wing activists and constitutional experts.

In response, Greene filed a counter lawsuit in a higher federal court, calling for the legal challenge to be dismissed, according to CNN. The Georgia representative will seek reelection in the state’s 14th District in the midterm elections this November.

Two days after Totenberg’s expected ruling, a state-level judge is scheduled to address the issues at the heart of the challenge against Greene: whether or not she aided Capitol insurrectionists, and if so, whether or not that fact should disqualify her from holding political office, CNN reported. Aiding or participating in an insurrection against the U.S. government disqualifies citizens from holding office under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.

There have been no insurrection or sedition charges filed against anyone involved in the Capitol riot; ‘insurrection’ has been a favorite term of left-leaning media organizations to describe the incident, however. Also, several months after the incident, the FBI noted that agents found no evidence that an armed insurrection with intent to take over the U.S. government by force was planned or executed.

Then-President Donald Trump has been accused of staging the incident, but at no time during his constitutionally-protected speech on Jan. 6 did he encourage supporters to storm the Capitol building.

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James Bopp Jr., Greene’s attorney, has dismissed the lawsuit against his client as “50 pages of newspaper articles, hearsay, and political hyperbole,” CNN reported. Bopp, who himself leans conservative, also warned during the court hearing on Friday that a ruling against Green could eventually lead to challenges against Trump’s fitness for office.

The suit, filed with assistance from the left-wing group Free Speech For People, cited Greene’s comments leading up to then-President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration in which she accused him and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) of treason. She has also repeated the former president’s claims that the election was not on the level and that Biden was not the legitimate victor. As such, she vowed not to support a peaceful transition of power, but she did not say she would lead, encourage, or participate in any anti-government violence.

“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,” Ron Fein, legal director for Free Speech For People, claimed a statement, however.

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“The Constitution disqualifies from public office any elected officials who aided the insurrection, and we look forward to asking Representative Greene about her involvement under oath,” Fein continued.

In Cawthorn’s case, U.S. District Court Judge Richard E. Myers ruled from the bench that the Sect. 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment is longer in force because Congress passed laws in 1872 and 1898 granting blanket amnesty for the Civil War.

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