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Topics: Marjorie Taylor Greene, US News, Politics
Cameron Frew
Marjorie Taylor Greene could be disqualified from public office under a 150-year-old law, a lawyer has said.
The Republican, QAnon-supporting congresswoman is staring down the barrel of a legal challenge to prevent her from running from re-election.
Greene has brewed controversy and mockery across the entirety of her short political career, whether it's mistaking the Gestapo for gazpacho, transphobia or reporting Jimmy Kimmel to the police.
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Under the 14th amendment to the US constitution, Greene could be disqualified from public office if she's found to have supported the insurrectionists who descended on the Capitol on 6 January last year and started deadly riots.
The amendment, passed after the American Civil War, 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... 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."
Ron Fein, legal director of Free Speech For People, a nonprofit advocacy organisation representing Georgia voters in favour of the challenge against Greene, admitted it was a 'rare' case.
As reported by Newsweek, he said: "This is a rare action and, in fact, it hasn't happened for over 150 years because insurrections against the United States, let alone insurrections in which members of Congress were involved is a very rare phenomenon.
"But Marjorie Taylor Greene crossed the line and she met the legal standard for engaging in insurrection, which, under our Constitution, means that she is disqualified from future public office."
While denying any involvement in planning the riots or supporting violence, Greene earlier said: "6 January was just a riot at the Capitol and if you think about what our Declaration of Independence says, it says to overthrow tyrants."
If the challenge is successful, Fein explained: "If we prevail with this hearing on Friday then the judge will write a written recommendation, which of course could be appealed, that would say Marjorie Taylor Greene is disqualified from public office.
"The secretary of state would put instructions at all the polling places in her district in Georgia saying that votes that are cast for her will not count and will be discarded."
Greene has been broadly dismissive of the case, describing it as 'absurd' on the The Jenna Ellis Show podcast.
She said: "You know what that is going to look like, the Democrats and the nasty mainstream media, the ones that lie about me constantly anyway.
"They are going to be able to twist and turn and clip out any little piece that they want of the horrible things that these funded attorneys are going to try to say about me."
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