Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, defended her right to run for Congress in court Friday in an administrative hearing on a challenge brought by a group of voters seeking to block her from the ballot, citing her role in the January 6 insurrection.
A group called Free Speech for People, claims that the congresswoman is disqualified from seeking re-election because her support of the rioters at the Capitol on January 6 made her an “insurrectionist” under the Constitution, and therefore barred her under the little-known third section of the 14th Amendment.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment states:
“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, 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. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
According to the New York Times, there have been previous efforts to use Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to block the elections of far-right Republicans in North Carolina and in Arizona. All those cases were struck down by the courts.
But so far, only the case against Congresswoman Greene has been allowed to proceed. And on Friday, she was forced to answer questions under oath.
The interesting thing about Greene’s testimony today was that everything she said under oath was the same old story of Trump having the election in 2020 taken away from him.
Greene insisted that “a tremendous amount of fraudulent activity” had robbed former President Donald J. Trump of his re-election, an assertion that has been soundly refuted by multiple courts, Republican-led recounts, and Mr. Trump’s own attorney general, William P. Barr.
But according to CNN News, Greene’s testimony did not establish that she planned for violence or coordinated with anyone who rioted on January 6. That hole in the challengers’ case could significantly undermine their chances of disqualifying Greene because they need to prove that she engaged in insurrection.
Greene was very forgetful, saying she “couldn’t remember” saying that she opposed the peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden — right before lawyers for the challengers played a video of her saying that.
The sassy GOP lawmaker was in the courtroom with one of her close congressional allies, Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who sat with her legal team.
Ron Fein, the attorney for Free Speech For People, said Friday that the “most powerful witness against Marjorie Taylor Greene’s candidacy, in establishing she crossed a line, is Greene herself,” reports CBS News.
The voters making up the group, Free Speech for People, also had their own Lawyer, Andrew Celli, who focused much of his questioning around 1776, on comparisons Greene made between the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol and the Revolutionary War, as well as the use of the 2nd Amendment by citizens to rise up against tyrannical governments.
Greene’s lawyer, James Bopp Jr., said the candidacy challenge “cannot be decided by this court” and suggested that the U.S. House of Representatives should have a role to debate whether she should be disqualified or prevented from being seated as a member of Congress in 2023, after the midterm election.
The administrative judge in Greene’s case, Charles Beaudrot, said he will try to make a decision within about a week or so. Then, he will make a recommendation to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger about Greene’s candidacy, and it will be up to him to decide whether to remove her from the ballot. Raffensperger is also up this year for reelection.
