The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal filed by a former New Mexico county commissioner who was banned from running for office after he participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach at the U.S. Capitol.
Couy Griffin, the former Otero County commissioner and the “Cowboys for Trump” founder, is the only elected official to have been banned from office in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, incident. He was banned by a state court under an interpretation of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month ruled that states lack the power to block former President Donald Trump and other federal officials from seeking office after the Colorado Supreme Court issued a ruling in December 2023 to bar him from state ballots under Section 3. But in the March 18 opinion, the high court said that different rules apply to local and state candidates and officials.
“We conclude that states may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office. But states have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the presidency,” the court said when it handed down the Trump-related decision.
Unlike President Trump, Mr. Griffin, a Republican, was convicted in federal court of entering a restricted area on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021, and received a 14-day prison term. The sentence was offset by time served after his arrest in Washington, where he had returned to protest President Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration. That conviction is under appeal.
Mr. Griffin argued that he entered the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021, without recognizing that it had been designated as a restricted area and that he attempted to lead a crowd in prayer using a bullhorn, without engaging in violence.
His appeal of his disqualification from office argued that Congress is the only entity that can enforce Section 3 of the amendment, which was written after the Civil War and prohibits officials who engaged in an “insurrection or rebellion” against the U.S. government from seeking office. He also wanted the high court to clarify how the Constitution defines an “insurrection” and whether the events of Jan. 6, 2021, constituted one.
Section 3 was passed to prevent former Confederate soldiers from returning to work in the U.S. government after the Civil War. However, it has rarely been enforced.
“This whole thing started on a small scale, with them coming after me, with the specific goal of bringing it up ... to the big stage with Donald Trump,” he told the channel. “I was the test case.”
Earlier this year, he denounced mainstream headlines that claimed that the Jan. 6, 2021, breach was an attack on “democracy” during an NBC News interview.
“It’s amazing. We live in a country where the headline is ‘democracy is under attack,’ and they use a civil bench trial to remove an elected official,” he told the outlet.
In his petition to the Supreme Court, Mr. Griffin’s lawyer argued he was exercising his First Amendment right to assembly and free speech on Jan. 6, 2021, and that removing him from office violates the First Amendment.
“If the decision ... is to stand, at least in New Mexico, it is now the crime of insurrection to gather people to pray together for the United States of America on the unmarked restricted grounds of the Capitol building,” his filing stated, according to media reports. “This Court cannot let this stand.”
His attorney also argued to the justices that “the bar for engaging in an insurrection is not trespassing on government property.”
In Mr. Griffin’s 2022 trial in state district court, New Mexico District Judge Francis Mathew said he believed that the Jan. 6, 2021, breach was an insurrection and ruled that Mr. Griffin was involved because he contributed to the delay in Congress’s election certification proceedings.
Three New Mexico residents, along with the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a leftist group that also brought the Colorado suit against President Trump, filed the lawsuit against Mr. Griffin. On its website, CREW appears to have an explicit focus on President Trump and Republicans who back him, and it asks visitors to donate to support its “continued work to hold Trump accountable.”
In a statement issued in 2022 after a court dismissed Mr. Griffin’s appeal, the organization said that the former county commissioner “engaged in insurrection on January 6th and disqualified himself from office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment” and that keeping him out of office “will help protect our democratic institutions from insurrectionists.”
