A lawsuit challenging Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s run for relection has been cleared by a federal judge to move forward. The politican from Georgia’s 14th congressional district since 2021 aided the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, the suit alleges. 

The case will now be presented to a Georgia state judge on Friday. Arguements from both sides will take place to determine whether Greene should be allowed to run as per the Constitution’s “disqualification clause”. 

Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment gives ‘Congress the power to disqualify someone who has already held a public office from holding “any office” if they participate in an “insurrection or rebellion” against the United States’. 

“This case involves a whirlpool of colliding constitutional interests of public import. Upon a thorough analysis of each of the claims asserted in this case, the Court concludes that [Greene] has not carried her burden of persuasion with respect to this important and essential prerequisite to [Greene’s] demonstration of an entitlement to injunctive relief,” District Judge Amy Totenberg of the Northern District of Georgia wrote in the 73-page ruling. 

He further added that the court will be focused on whether Greene could “establish a strong likelihood of prevailing on the merits of her legal claims.”

The ruling against Greene could become the basis of similar constitutional challenges that are pending against other Republican officials. Former President Donald Trump could also face hurdles if he runs again in 2024.

“The Constitution disqualifies from public office any elected officials who aided the insurrection, and we look forward to asking Representative Greene about her involvement under oath,” Ron Fein, the legal director of Free Speech for People, a legal advocacy group that is backing the challengers, said,as per CNN. 

Greene, who is seen as a conspiracy theorist, justified the January 6 attack. 

“Jan. 6 was just a riot at the Capitol and if you think about what our Declaration of Independence says, it says to overthrow tyrants,” Greene said during a radio program in October.