Taking History Seriously: Marjorie Taylor Greene, Reflections on Progressive Lawyering, and Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment

Authors

Andrew G. Celli Jr.

Abstract

History has lessons to teach, and lawyers can learn from and use history in ways other than by cherry-picking from it. This Article contends that, while American history may be vexed, progressive lawyers can fully embrace history and hold it up into the light for consideration, all in service of progressive ends.

This Article describes a recent litigation that illustrates the point. In March 2022, the Author, together with other lawyers and a non-partisan pro-democracy group, represented voters from Georgia’s fourteenth congressional district in their effort to disqualify U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from the Georgia ballot—based upon Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The effort involved an exploration of the history of insurrections in the early Republic, the year and the symbol “1776,” and the Fourteenth Amendment itself. The Author offers reflections and lessons from that experience.

Recommended Citation

Andrew G. Celli Jr., Taking History Seriously: Marjorie Taylor Greene, Reflections on Progressive Lawyering, and Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, 1 Fordham L. Voting Rts. & Democracy F. 59 (2022).
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/vrdf/vol1/iss1/7