John, We just filed an appeal of the lower federal court decision blocking our challenge to Madison Cawthorn under the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause. Free Speech For People is representing a group of North Carolina voters seeking to reverse a ruling issued last Friday by a federal district judge appointed by Donald Trump. The judge ordered the North Carolina State Board of Elections not to conduct a statutorily required hearing on the voters’ challenge to the candidacy of Madison Cawthorn under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause. The voters’ challenge, filed before the North Carolina State Board of Elections, alleges that Cawthorn is constitutionally disqualified from public office under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution based on evidence that he helped facilitate the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment disqualifies from public office any individual who has taken an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and then engages in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or gives aid or comfort to its enemies. This applies to all elected officials involved in the January 6th insurrection, including Madison Cawthorn. This clause, enacted in the wake of the Civil War, is not meant to punish the oathbreaker but rather to protect the country. Cawthorn filed a lawsuit in federal court to block the state candidacy challenge proceedings. Last Friday, Chief Judge Richard Myers of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina granted that request, in a ruling announced from the bench without a written opinion. According to the court’s ruling, Congress, in passing an 1872 amnesty law for ex-Confederates, essentially repealed the 14th Amendment, even though the only way to repeal an amendment to the U.S. Constitution is by enacting a new constitutional amendment. This decision must be reversed by the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit so that the North Carolina state proceedings may move forward. The 1872 amnesty for ex-Confederates cannot reverse a constitutional amendment, and it cannot protect Madison Cawthorn. Until the decision is overturned on appeal, the state process is on pause, and Madison Cawthorn is temporarily shielded from answering questions about whether his involvement in January 6 disqualifies him under the Fourteenth Amendment. But today’s emergency filing by the North Carolina voters asks the Court of Appeals to stay the injunction pending resolution of the appeal, enabling the initial stages of the North Carolina State Board’s candidacy challenge process to begin while the court considers the appeal on the merits. Read the emergency motion for a stay of the preliminary injunction pending appeal here. In solidarity, Ron Fein
Legal Director, Free Speech For People | 
