Another problem for Madison Cawthorn could be just around the corner

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A push by voters to bar Rep. Madison Cawthorn from running for office in North Carolina because of his support for insurrectionist activities running up to and on Jan. 6 is not over yet.

A panel of federal appeals court judges in Virginia is now weighing whether an earlier court ruling that blocked a challenge to his spot on the ballot was correctly decided. 

Last month, U.S. District Judge Richard Myers, appointed by former President Donald Trump, nixed an attempt by voters calling on the North Carolina Board of Elections to disqualify Cawthorn.

While they argue there is enough “reasonable suspicion” to suggest Cawthorn has violated the 14th Amendment—and specifically, the portion of it that prohibits insurrectionists from occupying or returning to office—Judge Myers disagreed. 

He would not rule on whether an insurrection occurred on Jan. 6 or if in his opinion, Cawthorn was privy to its planning, or whether he provided comfort to those who stormed the Capitol. Nor did he say whether Cawthorn was responsible for aiding or abetting the obstruction of Congress as it engaged in a ceremony necessary to the peaceful transfer of power. 

Instead, Judge Myers wrote in March,  it was about “who decides what must be decided—and who decides who decides.”

Myers March 10 Ruling for C… by Daily Kos

An amnesty law resulting from enmities of the Civil War that restored the rights of many former Confederates to hold office nullified the challenge, the order found. Further, Myers wrote, it would not be permissible for voters to appeal the ruling in the stead of state officials.

On Monday, the three-judge appeals panel sounded dubious over those assertions.

Congress, Cawthorn’s attorney James Bopp noted, has power under the 14th Amendment to grant amnesty with a two-thirds vote. 

And further, he argued, the Constitution only allows Congress to decide who is qualified to run for Congress, not state election officials.

But this would present a curious dynamic for state election officials, as well as voters: In the event there is a truly, categorically unqualified person vying for power, under Bopp’s theory, they would be allowed not just to run, but to win. 

Then, once in Congress, Congress could decide if they are qualified. 

This did not receive a warm reception from Judge James Wynn, an appointee of former President Barack Obama.

“What if you decide to run for office at 12 years old or something like?” Wynn said Monday. “You have to wait for Congress [to determine their qualifications and] say they can’t run?”

“It’s amazing how many things we let the voters decide,” Bopp retorted. 

He told the court he “couldn’t help” what the Constitution dictates. 

Another judge on the panel, the Trump-appointed Julius Richardson, appeared to support Bopp’s argument.

When Wynn remarked that he didn’t think anyone would believe Bopp’s theory that an obviously unqualified candidate would be allowed to not only run, but win a seat in Congress before anyone even so much as raised a question about their legitimacy, Judge Richardson interjected. 

“It’s what the Constitution says,” Richardson remarked. 

But for the challenger’s attorney Presley Millen, the logic of the Constitution was clear on this matter.  

When Congress enacted the insurrection provision under the 14th Amendment, it did so because it did not want former Confederates to serve the still-reeling, newly-reunified body. 

“Congress was not leaving it to the voters. The Constitution does not allow voters to send Chileans or teenagers to Congress, and it does not allow them to send insurrectionists,” Millen said. 

Cawthorn denies having been involved in any wrongdoing and has defended his remarks on Jan. 6 and in the days leading up to as patriotism. 

On the morning of the attack on the Capitol, the Republican lawmaker took the stage where Trump would soon appear and told the masses gathered there that fraud was rampant in the 2020 election. 

“The Democrats, with all the fraud they have done in this election, the Republicans, hiding and not fighting, they are trying to silence your voice,” Cawthorn said on Jan. 6. 

A day before, he put a call out on Twitter for the “New Republican Party” to show up for Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse.

Similar comments continued well after the inauguration of President Joe Biden, as well. 

In September 2021, Cawthorn told a group of voters gathered at a Republican Party-hosted event in North Carolina that “anybody who tells you that Joe Biden was dutifully elected is lying to you.”

Courts have tossed lawsuits from the former president claiming election fraud more than 50 times. The Department of Justice, including under the attorney general that Trump appointed, found zero evidence of rampant voter fraud. 

Cawthorn, however, said at that same event anyway that U.S. election systems “continue to be rigged” and that elections in America would keep being stolen. 

“And it’s going to lead to one place, and it’s bloodshed,” Cawthorn said. “I will tell you as much as I’m willing to defend our liberty at all costs, there is nothing I dread doing more than having to pick up arms against a fellow American.”

As Jan. 6 was later discussed, a supporter of Cawthorn’s at the gathering asked the congressman when he expected people to return to Washington. 

“We are actively working on that one,” he said. 

According to a Rolling Stone article published last October, Cawthorn was one of many right-wing, Trump-supporting Republicans who allegedly engaged with the Trump White House and rally organizers for Jan. 6. That list also included Reps. Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosar, Louie Gohmert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Andy Biggs, and Mo Brooks. 

All have denied any criminal activity or wrongdoing. 

There is no clarity yet on when the appeals court will rule on the challenge to Cawthorn.

The North Carolina primary is May 17. 

Bopp also represents Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who faced a similar legal challenge to her qualifications given her role in supporting Trump’s push to stop the certification of the 2020 election. Both Greene and Cawthorn—as well as Biggs and Gosar—are being zeroed in on by the voting rights nonprofit group, Free Speech for the People. 

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During her hearing, Greene had difficulty recalling nearly everything she said or did before Jan. 6. But her commentary was well documented in interviews, on television, and on social media beforehand.

Greene was, in fact, one of the former president’s most vocal supporters of rampant election fraud. 

Bopp last week argued that Greene was a victim of Jan. 6, not a perpetrator. 

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