Judge Says Insurrectionists Can Absolutely Be Banned From Holding Office

In the appeal of the decision to allow Madison Cawthorn to stay on the ballot, the judge ruled that the 14th Amendment DOES prevent those who engaged in insurrection from holding public office in the future. Cawthorn's lawyers had argued that the amendment did NOT say this, but the courts are making it clear that it does. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what this could mean for other people and for future candidates.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Yesterday, the fourth circuit court of appeals took up the case of whether or not Madison Cawthorn can in fact, end up on the ballot, which as we all know is about a week too late because Madison Cawthorn already lost his primary. So it doesn't matter if he's even allowed to be on the ballot. But the decision by the way from this court is actually pretty big and could have ramifications that stretch far beyond the borders of North Carolina. And the reason is because of the legal argument that Cawthorn and his lawyers put forward, see Callthorne and his lawyers had gone into court arguing that the, uh, 1872 amnesty act removed the provisions from the 14th amendment that says that anybody who engaged in or supported insurrection barred from public office, the rest of their lives, blah, blah, blah. They said the 1872 amnesty act cleared all that up.

So Madison Kor, even if he did aid the insurrectionist in any way, which they still claim he didn't. Um, even if he did, he's not barred from office. And the appeals court said, actually that's not true because the appeals court officially ruled that that 1872 amnesty act only applied to individuals that engaged in insurrection prior to the passage of the 14th amendment. And last time we checked everybody that that would apply to died long ago. So yes, the court says the 14th amendment does in fact bar people who engaged in an insurrection from ever holding public office. Again, the amnesty act only applied to people who fought in the civil war and later wanted to run for office, which was prior to the passage of the 14th amendment. That's big deal because it does mean that in the future. I mean, hell why, why am I even saying in the future, we have people who participated in the capital riot, running for office today, today, and I'm not talking about, you know, the tenuous relationships like Marjorie Taylor green and her tweets and Madison Callthorne and his tweets and actions, or even Holly, with his fist pump.

I'm talking about actual people who were there and stormed the capital running for office. They engaged in insurrection and this court is telling us they need to be barred from holding public office for the rest of their existence. That's powerful. That is obviously something that everybody else needs to pay attention to. If you live in an area where an individual is running for office, and we know that they participated in the capital riot, I suggest you immediately file a 14th amendment challenge to their candidacy and get them kicked off the ballot and off of every ballot for the rest of their lives. That is the green light that, that court just gave us. Now, the only caveat could, of course be what is an insurrection now? I know

It seems pretty obvious, right? We could define it. Sure. Could you define it and convince a court that, that is in fact what happened and that somebody took part in it? That's a little more difficult, isn't it? And I hope people understand that, you know, just because we saw them at the capital riot, if a court doesn't view that as an actual insurrection, the 14th amendment would not in fact apply to this person. So it's a tricky road. We've got a roadmap though. We know how to navigate it, but at that point, it's just gonna depend on what kind of judge you get and whether or not they define what happened on January 6th as an actual insurrection.