A procedurally dense hearing played out in a federal appeals court as judges tried to parse out the complex issues presented by a challenge to Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s candidacy over his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. 

“The challengers, as voters within the district, are the only people under the North Carolina statute who can initiate a challenge,” Womble Bond Dickinson attorney Pressly M. Millen told a panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, as he parsed out standing issues on behalf of several voters in Cawthorn’s congressional district who tried and failed to intervene in the dispute.