The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear the appeal of a former New Mexico county commissioner who was removed from office because of his role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection – a case that was similar to the one the high court recently decided involving former President Donald Trump.
Cowboys for Trump founder and convicted Capitol rioter Couy Griffin was removed from office in 2022, marking the first time an elected official was booted under the 14th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban” because of the US Capitol riot.
The Supreme Court’s move means the ruling barring Griffin from office will stand.
In a unanimous decision on March 4, the high court sided with Trump in a similar case. Six Colorado voters attempted to knock the former president off the ballot in that state because his remarks before the attack on the US Capitol in 2021. But the court ruled that states couldn’t do so on their own.
Responsibility for enforcing the ban, the court wrote, “rests with Congress and not the states.”
Griffin, unlike Trump, had already been found guilty of a January 6-related crime when he was disqualified from holding office. He was convicted of trespassing on Capitol grounds after a bench trial in March 2022. He was acquitted of a second misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct.
A civil trial on the disqualification question was held later that year. A state judge ruled that January 6 was an insurrection and that Griffin violated the oath he took as a commissioner by engaging in that insurrection. Griffin was disqualified under Section 3 and was removed in September 2022.
New Mexico’s top court dismissed Griffin’s appeal on procedural grounds.
A prominent right-wing conspiracy theorist, Griffin was part of the…
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