On March 14, the North Carolina Republican Party filed this amicus curiae brief in Cawthorn v Circosta, 22-1251. This is the case over whether Congressman Madison Cawthorn can stop election officials from determining whether he meets the Constitutional qualifications to run for Congress. The
U.S. District Court had ruled in Cawthorn’s favor on the grounds that the Fourteenth Amendment, section three, relating to insurrection, is no longer in effect because Congress in 1872 granted a blanket amnesty that is still in force.

The Republican Party amicus brief takes no position on whether the Fourteenth Amendment, section three, is still in force. Instead it argues that state election officials do not have the power to judge qualifications. The brief is uncompromising on that point, and says, in effect, that states can’t keep people off the ballot for congress, even if they are under-age, or aren’t citizens. Instead, if someone who doesn’t meet the qualifications is elected, then Congress will likely refuse to seat that person.

Alaska Senate Bill 161 has a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, March 16, at 1:30 p.m. It eases the definition of a qualified party. Here is the sponsor’s one-page letter, setting forth details about the bill.

According to this story, the former Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, Sharpe James, has filed a lawsuit in state court to obtain a place on the May 2022 ballot as a candidate for city council. A 2008 court order ruled that James could never again hold public office in New Jersey. The Mayor says there is a distinction between holding public office and running for public office, and he should be allowed to run, even if he could not be seated should he win the election.