If nothing else, discovery within this legal challenge – and potentially challenges to other office holders – could succeed in shedding light on the role members of the House and Senate played in encouraging the January 6 insurrection. Good. If it succeeds in barring them from running again, even better.

My first reaction to this read was that the challenge is on legal thin ice because it sounds like there’s a presumption of guilt in the process; i.e., “We think you’re an insurrectionist and you can’t run. Now, prove you’re not an insurrectionist.” But both sides are thoroughly lawyered up and taking the discussion seriously.

Also, things are much different in 2022 North Carolina than they were in 1920 Wisconsin. In 1920, America in general – including Wisconsin – was full of anti-German and anti-socialist fervor. Victor Berger checked both of those boxes. Cawthorn has much more public sentiment on his side.

Key portions of the article: 

“This case revolves around the little-known third section of the 14th Amendment, adopted during Reconstruction to punish members of the Confederacy who were streaming back to Washington to reclaim their elective offices — and infuriating unionist Republicans.

“That section declares that “no person shall” hold “any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath” to “support the Constitution,” had then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

“The lawyers challenging Mr. Cawthorn’s eligibility are using an amendment last invoked in 1920, when Representative Victor L. Berger, an Austrian-American socialist, was denied his seat representing Wisconsin after criticizing American involvement in World War I.

“If nothing else, the lawyers, including two former justices of the North Carolina Supreme Court, want to depose Mr. Cawthorn as part of discovery to question his actions before, during and after the attack on the Capitol.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/25/us/politics/madison-cawthorn-jan-6.html