Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz Rebuked by Judge During Legal Win

House Republicans Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz can proceed with legal action against two cities in California over the cancellation of rallies they were due to hold in 2021, following the decision of a federal judge filed on Friday.

However, U.S. District Judge Hernan Vera was damning of Greene and Gaetz’s attempt also to sue a number of progressive campaign groups that pushed for these cancellations. Vera called the bid “both legally and literally, a conspiracy theory that relies purely on conjecture.” Newsweek contacted the Washington D.C. offices of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rep. Matt Gaetz at 7:15 a.m. ET on Saturday by telephone and voicemail and email respectively. This article will be updated if either decides to comment.

Greene and Gaetz are two of presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s most-outspoken supporters in the House. In his ruling, Vera attempted to balance the competing First Amendment claims of the two GOP firebrands and campaigners opposed to their activities.

In 2021, Gaetz and Greene made bookings to host indoor events in the cities of Anaheim and Riverside in California, but had them canceled at short notice following complaints by a range of campaigners and advocacy groups.

In his judgment, Vera, a Biden appointee, said the two Republicans had “adequately” demonstrated that “the Municipal Defendants delegated to their respective agents the authority to cancel the rally” in a move that was “expressly predicated on viewpoint discrimination.”

However, Vera rejected Gaetz and Greene’s bid to continue legal action against a number of campaign groups that opposed their events in 2021. These included The League of Women Voters, The League of United Latin American Citizens and The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a civil-rights era group.

Vera described the legal cases against the campaign groups as suffering “from numerous fatal deficiencies” and said there was a “complete lack of any alleged facts” to support their basis for legal action.

Referring to the claims against the non-profits, Vera said: “The gravamen of Plaintiffs’ claims against the Nonprofit Defendants is, both legally and literally, a conspiracy theory that relies purely on conjecture.

“And without an unlawful conspiracy, all that is left to aver against the Nonprofit Defendants are the unremarkable allegations that they exercised their own First Amendment rights to lobby for the cancellation of the event. That is protected…

“The effect of Plaintiffs’ unprecedented and stunningly deficient pleading—haling nine civil rights groups into federal court for speaking out against an event—should shock in equal measure civic members from across the political spectrum,” Vera added.

On Friday, Greene filed a motion to vacate House Speaker Mike Johnson after he agreed a $1.2 trillion funding package, in a potential first move towards removing him from office.

Greene made her move with a regular rather than a privileged motion, meaning it is likely to be referred to a committee instead of a vote being required within two days. Speaking to reporters, the Georgia Republican described the move as “more of a warning than a pink slip.”

In total, 112 Republicans and 22 Democrats voted against the agreement Johnson reached to avoid a government shutdown in the House.