North Carolina Says It Can Block Rep. Madison Cawthorn From Ballot If He Took Part In Insurrection

On Monday, the North Carolina State Board of Elections released a court filing that said it had the power to block Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-North Carolina) from running for another term.

They stated that they could do this under the “disqualification act” found in Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.

“States have long enforced age and residency requirements, without question and with very few if any legal challenges,” the board wrote. “The State has the same authority to police which candidates should or should not be disqualified per Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

The case is still pending in federal court as North Carolina draws new congressional maps.

The amendment they are trying to use states that “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office … who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress … shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

The section was added after the Civil War to stop Confederate officials from running for office.

A group of liberal North Carolina voters filed a lawsuit last month citing Cawthorn’s “substantial” role in last year’s Capitol attack in an attempt to block him from the ballot by using the Fourteenth Amendment. Cawthorn filed a counter-suit. He said that he did not take part in the insurrection.

The 14th Amendment 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,” Cawthorn said. “I’m defending not only my rights but the right of the people to democratically elect their representatives.”