Supreme Court allows New Mexico to become first state to unseat an insurrectionist

Left: The justices of the United States Supreme Court (Alex Wong/Getty images). Right: Couy Griffin at the Capitol on Jan. 6 (via DOJ court filing).

The Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal of the “Cowboys for Trump” founder — and convicted Jan. 6 rioter — on Monday, thereby following through on its declaration that while states may not disqualify insurrectionists from holding presidential office, they can certainly unseat state officials.

“We conclude that States may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office,” the justices wrote in an unsigned opinion on March 4 about the ultimately unsuccessful effort to get Donald Trump kicked off the presidential primary ballot in Colorado (emphasis in original).

The Court’s decision Monday means that a ruling by the top court in New Mexico will stand against the only U.S. elected official that has been barred from holding office because of his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Former Otero County, New Mexico, commissioner Couy Griffin, who founded “Cowboys for Trump,” was convicted in March 2022 of entering a restricted area — a misdemeanor — for participating in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Griffin was acquitted of a second misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct after a bench trial before U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Donald Trump appointee.

Griffin was recorded standing with a megaphone over the crowd outside the Capitol and boasted on social media that he “climbed up on the top of the Capitol building” and “had a first row seat” to the violence. According to the criminal complaint filed against him, Griffin promised, “we will plant our flag on the desk of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and Donald J. Trump if it boils down to it.”

You May Also Like

3 siblings tied up and starved 18-year-old brother to death, then let his body ‘swell and smell’ for days before reporting it, police say

Background: The home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where Ezekiel Baseme was found…

Man who threw 2-year-old to death from 30-foot bridge after shooting mom admits to both killings

Brynnen Murphy being escorted by police in March 2022 (Baton Rouge Police…

The Anatomy of a Serial Killer: Psychology, Profiling, Prevention

This three-part podcast series explores how serial killers develop and how to…

‘This is how we treat seizures in Walker County’: Deputy stomped the genitals of a mentally ill inmate who later died of complications from injury

Background: News coverage of video of Anthony Mitchell in custody (WBRC). Inset…