I'm watching for news of the challenge to Madison Cawthorn's ability to run for reelection to Congress, based on his support for the January 6, 2021 insurrection. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution says that "no person may hold political office 'who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress ... shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion.'"
Cawthorn, among others in Congress, showed clear support for the insurrection. And it turns out that North Carolina, particularly, has a state law that makes his path to reelection even more fraught. It asks only that challengers establish a "reasonable suspicion or belief" that a candidate isn't qualified to run. After that, the burden of proof is on Cawthorn.
A story I saw today (originally from the New York Times, but I saw a version in the Star Tribune) included this paragraph:
The lawyers challenging Cawthorn's eligbility are using an amendment last invoked in 1920, when Rep. Victor L. Berger, an Austrian American socialist, was denied his seat representing Wisconsin after criticizing the United States' involvement in World War I.
I don't think it's confirmation bias for me to say that Cawthorn's support for people who attacked the Capitol while trying to stop the electoral process sounds like insurrection, while Berger opposing U.S. involvement in a war does not.
It didn't shock me to hear this happened to him at that specific point in U.S. history, since I already knew about the jailing of Eugene Debs and the suppression of The Masses magazine for the same reason. I'm mostly surprised that I've never heard of him, given that I've lived not far from Wisconsin for 30-plus years.
Berger was co-founder of the American Socialist Party, along with Debs. (Source.) After immigrating to the Milwaukee area as a young man around 1880, he was a teacher and then worked at a newspaper. He later served in a local elected office, which led to a run for Congress as a Socialist. He won, beginning a term in 1911. He lost after one term, but won again in 1918.
This election was just at the time of the Armistice, remember. The House refused to seat him when the new Congress took office in early 1919 because of his outspoken anti-war positions, using the squishy logic that criticizing the war effort was giving aid and comfort to the enemy and therefore constituted disloyalty under the language of the 14th Amendment.
After a few more twists and turns, Berger finally was seated after a later election in 1922 — which would appear to prove that it was post-war political fashion that kept him out earlier, rather than a real violation of the 14th Amendment. He then served for most of the 1920s before he was killed by a passing trolley in 1929.
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Image from the of Library of Congress.
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Here's a past post about Madison Cawthorn, in case you missed it.
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