The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that post-Civil War amnesty laws do not protect members of Congress who voiced support for the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, reported Jurist.
Voters brought a case against Representative Madison
Cawthorn, claiming that Cawthorn was ineligible to run for re-election because
of his comments in support of the Capitol attack. Voters argued that Cawthorn’s
comments violated a clause of the Fourteenth Amendment which disqualifies
insurrectionists.
Under the clause, politicians who have engaged
in “insurrection or rebellion” against the United States or “given aid or
comfort” to insurrectionists are barred from running for
Congress. Cawthorn argued that the Amnesty Act of 1872 repealed the clause
and protects him. At the trial court level, a federal judge agreed and
dismissed the challenge to Cawthorn.
However, Judge Toby Heytens wrote for the Fourth
Circuit that “the 1872 Amnesty Act removed the Fourteenth Amendment’s
eligibility bar only for those whose constitutionally wrongful acts occurred
before its enactment… the 1872 Amnesty Act does not categorically exempt all
future rebels and insurrectionists.”
Cawthorn lost his GOP primary last week, but the ruling may apply to other elected officials.
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