Efforts by voters challenging Republican Congressman Madison Cawthorn’s eligibility for office–based on his vocal and ongoing support for the January 6th domestic terrorists–got a boost today when the North Carolina State Board of Elections ruled the group’s lawsuit can proceed despite Cawthorn’s court filing to dismiss, WTVD ABC-11 Raleigh-Durham reports.
The lawsuit contends that according to North Carolina law, Cawthorn is ineligible to be elected to office because he is in violation of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution which prohibits people from running for Congress “who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress…to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.”
North Carolina law allows voters to challenge the eligibility of a nominee or office holder based on “reasonable suspicion or belief.” The statute demands that the candidate “show by a preponderance of the evidence” of qualifications to run. Cawthorn claims that the Board’s powers illegally impede his First Amendment rights.
“A reasonable suspicion is nothing more than a triggering mechanism for the challenge proceeding,” attorneys for the Board of Elections said in Tuesday’s court filing., adding that is for a quasi-judicial panel to decide whether the candidate meets the legal qualifications to stand for election – which would give Cawthorn his due process. “The interest of the public to have presented to them a slate of qualified candidates is fundamental to representative government and more than outweighs any burden that may be imposed by North Carolina’s challenge statute.”
State prosecutors have claimed that Cawthorn’s court challenges against the lawsuit are “dubious.” They said that any burden Cawthorn claimed would be more than offset by the interests of the citizens being served. But Cawthorn thinks he has no duty to defend his eligibility.
“Running for office is not only a great privilege, it is a right protected under the Constitution,” Cawthorn said in filings. “I love this country and have never engaged in, or would ever engage in, an insurrection against the United States. Regardless of this fact, the Disqualification clause and North Carolina’s Challenge Statute is being used as a weapon by liberal Democrats to attempt to defeat our democracy by having state bureaucrats, rather than the People, choose who will represent North Carolina in Congress. I’m defending not only my rights but the right of the People to democratically elect their representatives.”