A Trump-appointed federal judge has determined that the clause in the Constitution referenced by plaintiffs in a lawsuit to challenge the eligibility for North Carolina’s Madison Cawthorn for office is no longer valid, and he has tossed the case, WTVD ABC-11 in Raleigh reports.
Richard Myers II, who Trump appointed to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, ruled that a 1872 amnesty law passed by Congress essentially negated Section Three of the 14th Amendment which bars people who at any point took an oath to the Constitution but participated in an insurrection against the Constitution from holding civil or military office. No other jurisdiction or legislative body has made a similar interpretation.
The plaintiffs have argued that Cawthorn’s stated support of the domestic terrorists who attacked Congress on January 6th qualified as a circumstance to exclude Cawthorn from candidacy.