A Georgia administrative judge has ruled that GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is eligible to appear on the ballot for re-election in the November 2022 election, rejecting a lawsuit filed by a group of voters who’d argued she had engaged in insurrection in the days leading up to the 6 January 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In a written opinion, administrative Law Judge Charles Beaudrot said the evidence presented was “insufficient” to establish that Greene had “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the US or had given those who did “aid and comfort” and therefore she should be permitted to run for a second term, The New York Times reports.
“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,” he added.
The judge’s decision doesn’t mean Greene is out of the woods yet. Under Georgia law, he will submit his findings to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who will ultimately decide if Greene will appear on the ballot.
In response to Beaudrot’s decision, Free Speech for People released a statement condemning the judge’s ruling, saying it “betrays the fundamental purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause and gives a pass to political violence as a tool for disrupting and overturning free and fair elections”.
“The case law under the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause is clear that any voluntary assistance to an insurrection is disqualifying, and the evidence presented in this case established beyond serious question that Greene helped facilitate an assemblage of violent extremists for the purpose, as she admitted on video, of preventing the peaceful transfer of power,” they said.
The group added: “We urge Secretary Raffensperger to take a fresh look at the evidence presented in the case and reject the judge’s recommendation. Marjorie Taylor Greene helped facilitate the January 6 insurrection, and under the Constitution, she is disqualified from future office”.
Read it in The New York Times.
