(Tony Sifert, Headline USA) Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has accepted an administrative law judge’s ruling that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is eligible for the 2022 ballot, according to the Associated Press.
ACQUITTED. pic.twitter.com/p8aH6rbm01
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) May 6, 2022
Greene was accused by leftist lawfare gunsels of falling afoul of the 14th Amendment‘s Disqualification Clause, which holds that “no person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress . . . who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress . . . shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.”
Plaintiff’s argued that Greene’s Jan. 5, 2021 claim that the Save America Rally on Jan. 6 would be “our 1776 moment” was tantamount to participating in an insurrection.
“Greene repeatedly advocated for political violence, up to and including, her encouragement of insurrectionists on January 6,” Free Speech for People wrote in its complaint.
Georgia Administrative Law Judge Charles Beaudrot disagreed.
“The Court concludes that the evidence in this matter is insufficient to establish that Rep. Greene . . . ‘engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or [gave] aid or comfort to the enemies thereof’ under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution,” the judge wrote.
Free Speech for People immediately fired back.
“This decision 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 group wrote in a statement.
The final decision, however, rested with Raffensperger, who has clashed with Greene-supporting President Trump on numerous occasions over the 2020 election fraud claims.
Facing a primary challenge from a Trump-endorsed candidate later this month, Raffensberger backed Judge Beaudrot’s decision.
Greene’s lawyer blasted the Left for its lawfare tactics.
“The Democrat lawyers and their allies who wanted to use First Amendment-protected speech — hyperbole — by Representative Greene to prove that she participated in an insurrection were sternly rebuffed by the judge,” James Bopp told the New York Times.
“That’s good news for the First Amendment and good news for our democracy.”
