14th Amendment is back in play

| 12:01 pm EDT May 25, 2022
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Never let it be said that appeals don’t work. Sometimes they do. I say this because a federal appeals court has just made a decision. This decision is that those who engage in insurrection can be barred from political office.

As you may well remember, some Republican candidates saw challenges to their candidacies for just this reason. One of those candidates was North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn. That is where this decision stems from. A previous decision had ruled in Cawthorn’s favor. Evidently, this appeals court saw things a little differently. Here is what the ruling said:

“To ask such a question is nearly to answer it.”

“Consistent with the statutory text and context, we hold that the 1872 Amnesty Act removed the Fourteenth Amendment’s eligibility bar only for those whose constitutionally wrongful acts occurred before its enactment.”

“Accordingly, we reverse the direct court’s grant of injunctive relief and remand for further proceedings.”

I am confident this will not be the last we’ve heard of the issue. It will be from Cawthorn because his career is effectively over anyway. It was over when he lost his primary. Actually, I believe it was over when he spoke about the now infamous “cocaine and orgies.” Whether that is true or not didn’t matter to Republicans — he dared go against the machine.

I believe this was the right decision. Nobody who commits or engages in any acts of insurrection against our country should ever be allowed into office. It looks like, in this case – the appeals court agrees.