WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday declined to hear an ousted New Mexico county commissioner’s challenge to judicial rulings that made him the first person to be disqualified from office under a constitutional provision regarding insurrection for taking part in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
Former Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, a Republican, had appealed a ruling by New Mexico’s top court upholding a judge’s decision to ban him from public office after finding he participated in an insurrection. Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment disqualifies from office any “executive or judicial officer of any state” who took an oath to “support” the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection.”