US Supreme Court rejects New Mexico official's appeal of insurrection
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[March 19, 2024]
By John Kruzel
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear
an ousted New Mexico county commissioner's challenge to judicial rulings
that made him the first person to be disqualified from office under a
constitutional provision regarding insurrection for taking part in the
Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
Former Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, a Republican, had
appealed a ruling by New Mexico's top court upholding a judge's decision
to ban him from public office after finding he participated in an
insurrection. Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment
disqualifies from office any "executive or judicial officer of any
state" who took an oath to "support" the Constitution and then "engaged
in insurrection."
The Supreme Court on March 4 issued a ruling involving former President
Donald Trump and the 14th Amendment. It reversed a decision by
Colorado's top court excluding Trump from the state's ballot under
Section 3, finding that states are barred from disqualifying candidates
for federal office under the provision. The Colorado Supreme Court had
concluded that Trump's actions concerning the attack on the Capitol by
his supporters amounted to insurrection.
Trump is the Republican candidate challenging Democratic President Joe
Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election.
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Trump supporters attacked police, broke through barricades and swarmed
the Capitol in a bid to prevent Congress from certifying Biden's 2020
election victory over Trump. Trump gave an incendiary speech to
supporters beforehand, telling them to go to the Capitol and "fight like
hell." He then for hours rebuffed requests that he urge the mob to stop.
Griffin, founder of a political advocacy group called "Cowboys for
Trump," was convicted in March 2022 of a misdemeanor count of entering
and remaining on restricted grounds on Jan. 6 and sentenced to 14 days
in jail. He was acquitted of a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct.
Three New Mexico residents - backed by the liberal watchdog group
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) - brought a
complaint against Griffin in March 2022 in a Santa Fe-based state court
seeking his removal from office under the 14th Amendment. CREW also
backed the Colorado disqualification effort against Trump.
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Noah Bookbinder, president of CREW, welcomed the Supreme Court's
decision on Monday.
"By refusing to take up this appeal, the Supreme Court keeps in
place the finding that January 6th was an insurrection, and ensures
that states can still apply the 14th Amendment's disqualification
clause to state officials," Bookbinder said.
Lawyers for Griffin did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Griffin on Jan. 6 joined thousands of people at the Capitol, where
he breached security barriers outside of the building and eventually
assumed a leadership role in the mob and egged on the violence,
according to court records.
State District Court Judge Francis Mathew in a September 2022 ruling
disqualifying Griffin from public office wrote that he had "incited,
encouraged and helped normalize the violence" on Jan. 6 and took
"overt acts in support of the insurrection."
The New Mexico Supreme Court dismissed Griffin's appeal in November
2022 on procedural grounds and in February 2023 denied his request
for reconsideration, prompting Griffin's appeal to the U.S. Supreme
Court.
Griffin's lawyers argued in a court brief that the New Mexico
judicial rulings violated Griffin's free speech rights under the
U.S. Constitution's First Amendment and that states cannot enforce
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment unless Congress first passes
legislation authorizing them to do so.
The 14th Amendment was ratified following the American Civil War of
1861-1865 in which seceding Southern states that allowed the
practice of slavery rebelled against the U.S. government.
(Reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham)
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