After a state judge refused to disqualify U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) from the ballot, the left-wing group that challenged her candidacy on insurrection grounds is appealing the judge’s ruling to the Georgia Supreme Court.
The state court threw out the challenge on July 25. The appeal was filed July 28.
Greene, an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump, represents Georgia’s 14th Congressional District. The Christian conservative is known for making strongly worded, often controversial statements. A first-term lawmaker now seeking a second term, she won the Republican primary in her district on May 24 with 70.4 percent of the vote.
A group called Free Speech for People and five local voters claimed Greene cannot serve in Congress because she allegedly participated in an insurrection to prevent the peaceful transfer of presidential power by supporting Trump’s post-election challenges to the November 2020 election results. The group claimed the rarely invoked Disqualification Clause in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was enacted in the wake of the Civil War to keep former Confederates out of Congress, applied to her as an alleged insurrectionist.
This supposed insurrection culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, in which protesters delayed the congressional certification of the presidential election results for several hours. Democrats and some Republicans characterize the disturbance, from which some elected officials took cover, as an insurrection or coup attempt aimed at overthrowing the U.S. government, a claim that has been adamantly denied by Trump and his supporters.
Brasher wrote that there was no evidence Greene participated in an insurrection. The court “does not find that the Administrative Law Judge applied the wrong legal standard,” he added.
Free Speech for People criticized the ruling in a statement.
“Judge Brasher’s short (six-page, double-spaced) decision rejected the appeal with minimal legal analysis, largely simply stating that the administrative law judge’s legal decisions were within his discretion. Judge Brasher declined to decide any of Greene’s counterclaims, such as that the events of January 6 were not an insurrection, or that the candidate challenge process was unconstitutional. In essence, his opinion affirms the administrative law judge’s opinion without adding or changing anything,” the statement reads.
Free Speech for People has also tried to disqualify other Trump-supporting elected officials, including Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Republican seeking his state’s governorship, as well as U.S. Reps. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.). The group has also urged secretaries of state across the country to keep Trump off the 2024 presidential ballot.
The Epoch Times reached out repeatedly to Greene’s congressional communications director, Nick Dyer, but hadn’t received a reply as of press time.
