Supreme Court Lets ‘insurrectionist’ Ban Against New Mexico Official Stand

The Supreme Court has turned away a convicted member of the Jan. 6 mob who was barred from public office in New Mexico under the Constitution’s “insurrection clause” seeking to reverse his disqualification.

The justices on Monday denied Couy Griffin’s petition to consider his effort to overturn the rulings of courts in New Mexico that deemed him ineligible from holding office there ever again.

Griffin, who was convicted in 2022 of misdemeanor offenses related to his role in the breach of Capitol grounds, was a member of the Otero County board of commissioners until courts ordered him removed later that year. The former Cowboys for Trump founder was an early and vocal advocate of discredited theories about election fraud.

It’s the Supreme Court’s first action related to the “insurrection clause” since it overturned the Colorado state Supreme Court’s decision to bar Donald Trump from the ballot. In their decision, the justices ruled that states should not have unilateral power to disqualify candidates for federal office — but that state offices are another matter.

“We conclude that States may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office,” the justices wrote.

Griffin was the first official in modern times to be barred from office under the “insurrection clause” of the 14th Amendment, which was passed following the Civil War to block ex-Confederates from taking the reins of the government they sought to dismantle.

The amendment forbids anyone who has previously sworn an oath to the Constitution — and then joins an insurrection or rebellion against the government — from holding state or federal offices again. But the text leaves many ambiguities about who may enforce the provision or to determine who qualifies as an insurrectionist. In a decision that divided the court, the justices ruled that only Congress can enforce the provision against federal office seekers.

Griffin’s case two years ago was at the time seen as an early test of the applicability of the amendment to the rioters on Jan. 6. The liberal government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington — or CREW — backed the lawsuit that led to Griffin’s disqualification.

CREW was also behind the lawsuit out of Colorado that initially ruled Trump disqualified, which the Supreme Court overturned earlier this month.

Griffin was the second member of the Jan. 6 mob convicted at trial. He marched to the building with a group of supporters and filmed his approach, climbing barricades and retaining walls and eventually the inaugural stage scaffolding outside the building. He didn’t enter the Capitol.