The petition identifies Representatives Paul Gosar, Lauren Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor Greene as ineligible for Congressional office for having “voiced support for and helped facilitate” the deadly insurrection on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021.

(WASHINGTON, DC) – Free Speech For People and MoveOn issued a joint petition today calling on voters to urge their House Representatives to challenge the qualifications of Paul Gosar (AZ-4), Lauren Boebert (CO-3) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-1) under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, widely referred to as the Disqualification Clause. 

“The coordinated and violent attack on the United States Capitol in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying the presidential vote on January 6, 2021 was an insurrection against the United States,” the petition reads. “When the new Congress convenes, a Member-elect of the House may challenge, under House procedures authorized by the Constitution, the qualifications of another Member-elect. We must urge them to do so.”

Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, enacted in the aftermath of the Civil War, states that anyone who has previously sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution, and then engages in “insurrection or rebellion” against the United States (or provides “aid or comfort” to its enemies) is permanently disqualified from holding future public office. 

In the petition, Free Speech For People and MoveOn present the evidence and establish arguments against the eligibility of each of the three members so named, citing an abundance of publicly available evidence that implicates them in acts which the language of Section 3 identifies as unambiguous grounds for disqualification. 

“Not only was [Paul Gosar] among a handful of Congress members who expressed vocal support for the insurrection as it was happening,” the groups write, “but, according to news reports, [he] went so far as to offer organizers of the pre-attack demonstration a “blanket pardon” in connection with unrelated criminal investigations, encouraging what would no doubt be an illegal act of violence.” 

The two groups catalog Rep. Greene and Rep. Boebert’s public references to the insurrection as “1776,” “a codeword used by violent extremists to refer to an attack on government buildings.” They identify Greene’s repeated remarks precipitating the insurrection that violence would be necessary to keep then-President Donald Trump in office, and justifying the violence in the days that ensued by citing the Declaration of Independence.  

The groups go on to describe how Rep. Boebert, initially billed as a speaker in the pre-attack demonstration, released an ad days before the election featuring herself openly carrying a firearm through federal buildings, and “pledging to carry a handgun in the Capitol despite DC laws banning open carry.” Cited also is a Rolling Stone report from October 2021 alleging that two anonymous Jan. 6th organizers admitted to “dozens” of planning meetings with Boebert and other Congress members in the days prior to January 6th, 2021. 

“Despite a wealth of evidence indicting Gosar, Boebert and Greene for insurrectionist activity, Secretaries of State and chief election officials have thus far failed to follow the mandate of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment,” the petition reads. “The task has now fallen to American voters to urge our Representatives to do their duty and challenge the qualifications of Gosar, Greene, and Boebert under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.”  

Free Speech For People, a national nonpartisan legal advocacy group, has spearheaded the nationwide effort to “hold insurrectionists accountable for their role in the violent assault on American democracy” that took place on January 6th, 2021. Along with the Mi Familia Vota Education Fund, the group has recently joined together to launch TrumpIsDisqualified.org, a campaign calling on Secretaries of State and top election officials across the country to follow the mandate of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment and permanently bar Donald Trump–and all other elected officials who participated in the January 6th insurrection–from any future ballot.

 

You can read the Free Speech For People and MoveOn petition here.