The United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Thursday instructed the District Court for the Northern District of Georgia to dismiss Marjorie Taylor Greene’s lawsuit over a challenge to her congressional candidacy. Green maintained her candidacy eligibility and is presently on the Georgia ballot, making the dispute moot.
In March, a group of voters challenged Greene’s eligibility to run for office claiming that Greene had “engaged in insurrection” connected to the events at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. The voters cited the Challenge Statute under the Fourteenth Amendment, which allows eligible voters to file a pre-election challenge to a candidate’s qualifications for state or federal office. Greene asked the district court to bar the challenge.
All state proceedings of this case have concluded, and Greene has been successful at each stage. An administrative law judge ruled that the challengers lacked sufficient evidence to prove that Greene engaged in the January 6 insurrection. The ruling was affirmed by Secretary Raffensperger, the Superior Court of Fulton County and the Supreme Court of Georgia.
In a dissent, Judge Elizabeth Branch wrote that Greene could have been entitled to an injunction because Georgia “invaded Congress’s role to judge its members’ qualifications.”