A federal appeals court greenlighted an effort to disqualify GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn as a candidate for allegedly engaging in insurrectionary activity by attending and speaking at the Jan. 6, 2021, pro-Trump rally that was followed by a security breach of the U.S. Capitol.
The incident, characterized by Democrats and some Republicans as an insurrection, delayed the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election as president by several hours.
The decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, issued on May 24, overturns a lower court’s finding that the 1872 Amnesty Act that bestowed amnesty on almost all members of the Confederacy had the effect of immunizing Cawthorn from a lawsuit brought under the Disqualification Clause in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution….