The Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal of former New Mexico county commissioner Couy Griffin, Cowboys for Trump founder and convicted Capitol rioter.
Griffin was removed from office in 2022 for his role in the January 6 riot under the 14th Amendment insurrectionist ban.
The ruling barring Griffin from office will stand. But the Supreme Court sided with Donald Trump on March 4 in a similar case.
Griffin becomes the first elected official to be barred from office under the insurrection clause, passed following the Civil War to block ex-Confederates from taking the reins of the government they sought to dismantle.
Griffin was convicted of trespassing on Capitol grounds in March 2022 in a bench trial, the second conviction of the mob of rioters.
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.
A statement from Citizens For Ethics and Responsibility in D.C.:
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. Crucially, this decision reinforces that every decision-making body that has substantively considered the issue has found that January 6th was an insurrection, and Donald Trump engaged in that insurrection. Now it is up to the states to fulfill their duty under Section 3 to remove from office anyone who broke their oath by participating in the January 6th insurrection.”
