Supreme Court won’t review ruling that removed New Mexico official from office over January 6 insurrection

By John Fritze and Marshall Cohen, CNN

(CNN) — 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.” But the ruling explicitly said states are allowed to enforce the so-called insurrectionist ban against “persons holding or attempting to hold state office.”

That’s the process that was followed with Griffin, who was removed by from his local county office by a New Mexico state judge.

And further, 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, but the conviction bolstered the challengers’ arguments that he engaged in an insurrection.

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 Capitol insurrection mob, though he didn’t enter the building itself.

He returned to national attention in June 2022 by refusing to certify the legitimate results of a primary elections in his county, citing baseless claims of election irregularities, which triggered a standoff with state election authorities.

In a recent interview with CNN, Griffin slammed the process that led to his disqualification, and also criticized the similar cases against Trump.

“This whole thing started on a small scale, with them coming after me, with the specific goal of bringing it up the to the big stage with Donald Trump,” Griffin said. “I was the test case.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

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