Efforts to remove Madison Cawthorn from North Carolina ballots blocked by federal judge

On Friday, a North Carolina federal judge blocked an effort to keep US Rep. Madison Cawthorn off of ballots in North Carolina this midterm election.

According to WRAL, Chief District Court Judge Richard Myers said that he wouldn’t allow North Carolina’s election board to proceed with an inquiry that would have dove into the US representative’s alleged role in the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol building.

The challenge was filed by attorneys looking to label Cawthorn as an insurrectionist, and have him legally barred from the ballot. Cawthorn spoke at the Save America rally that took place in the hours leading up to, and during, the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

"We are at a moment in which interest in free and fair elections is at its peak," Myers said, adding that it was his responsibility as a federal judge to protect "the soapbox... the ballot box... and the jury box... And when those fail, that's when people proceed to the ammunition box."

The challengers alleged that Cawthorn triggered Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution by stoking anger in the pro-Trump protestors at the rally that day.

The section states: "No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."

Myers concluded though that an 1872 amnesty law passed by Congress overruled this section of the 14th Amendment, according to ABC 11.

Cawthorn’s lawyers had argued that the Amnesty Act of 1872 applied not only retroactively to Confederate officials, as was the original intention of the act, but to future "insurrectionists."

Cawthorn has denied that he participated in an insurrection.

"We're greatly disappointed," said John Wallace, a Democratic lawyer who represented the challengers. "Those North Carolina voters who saw it fit to challenge Cawthorn's candidacy now won't have a chance to do so."

Cawthorn called the ruling a "huge victory."

The State Board of Elections could appeal Myers’ decision, but have yet to say whether they will do so.

Myers also noted the fast approaching deadlines for the primaries, which will take place on May 17. If Cawthorn was kept off the ballot, the primaries would likely be decided before appeals could fully run their course.