As the US supreme court appears ready to let Donald Trump remain on the ballot this year, a small New Mexico county on the Texas border may stand alone as the only place where the 14th amendment has recently been used to remove a government official from the ballot.
Couy Griffin, who served as county commissioner until 2022 in Otero County, population about 69,000, became the first official in more than a century to be removed from office under a little-used provision in the 14th amendment that bans rebel holdings. office. Griffin, the founder of the group Cowboys for Trump, was convicted of illegally entering the US Capitol on January 6, a misdemeanor.
Relating to: US supreme court casts doubt on Colorado’s decision to remove Trump from ballot
“I feel like I’m kind of a test pilot or a proving ground for anything they try to do to Trump legally, especially as it relates to section 3 of the 14th amendment,” Griffin said. He added that he knew the merits of Trump’s case but had not followed the allegations closely.
“It’s almost like looking at vomit,” said Griffin, who appealed his impeachment to the US Supreme Court. “You look at it long enough to realize what it is, and then you stop looking at it because it’s so disgusting. “That’s the essence of this Colorado thing.”
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Shortly after the 2020 election, Griffin spoke at a stop-theft rally in Albuquerque at an event where the New Mexico civil guard, a militia group, was also present. In his decision to oust Griffin, Judge Francis Mathew said “normalizing violence” might be necessary to keep Trump in office and joined a multi-state bus tour to gather people who would come to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Griffin used his position to cast doubt on the election. He encouraged David Clements, a prominent election denier, and his wife, Erin, to question the 2020 election in Otero County, which Trump won overwhelmingly. Griffin shared internal county emails with the Clementses and asked them for guidance on how to respond, Reuters reported. David Clements began launching an investigation and hired a disreputable firm to investigate the fraud.
Following the 2022 primary, commissioners in Otero County refused to certify the election, citing unspecified concerns about fraud. They were eventually forced to approve the document after a lawsuit from Democratic secretary of state Maggie Toulouse Oliver.
Griffin was dismissed a few months later in connection with sedition charges.
“I imagine this is the kind of thing that the framers of section 3 envisioned,” said Donald Sherman, an attorney with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, who said both the lawsuit against Griffin and the lawsuit challenging Trump’s eligibility in Colorado It helped open it. . “Even after January 6, Couy Griffin was undermining democracy from office.”
Griffin didn’t shy away from the show. He removed those who disagreed with him from county commission meetings, and after he was removed, he showed up at the county commission meeting to argue with his replacement. He rode a horse in front of the district administration building to protest his dismissal. He also said he planned to ride a horse to his hearing at the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., but dropped the idea.
He stated that the recall attempt against him after January 6 failed. A subsequent effort to remove him from office was successful.
“Since legally, constitutionally, I cannot be removed from office by recall, my opponents used the fraud and corruption of the state district court to remove me from office,” he said.
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During more than two hours of oral argument earlier this month, the U.S. supreme court appeared concerned that Colorado could unilaterally remove Trump from the ballot and appeared ready to let him run. Trump warned that there would be “chaos and turmoil” if he was removed from office.
In Otero County, some say Griffin’s dismissal actually restores a sense of normalcy at the county commission.
“I think it’s more out of sight, out of mind. We had a lot of problems when he was here because he was voicing the problems. It seems like a lot of those issues went away after he was removed,” said Robyn Holmes, the county clerk.
Griffin has an appeal pending at the U.S. supreme court and is hoping a ruling that brings Trump back to the ballot will benefit him, too. But there are important differences between the two situations.
When he was ousted, Griffin was a county commissioner, a local office, while Trump was a candidate for federal office. New Mexico law includes a so-called quo warranto statute that allows private citizens to challenge his ability to remain in office. In the Trump case, the justices expressed concern that there was no clear congressional statute explaining how Section 3 would apply to a national candidate. Some have wondered whether section 3 of the 14th amendment could apply to Trump because he was a candidate for office, not an office holder.
Sherman said the trial to impeach Griffin “is not a test case.”
“This was the first case against an insurrectionist holding a government office that we believe violated his oath of office and was subject to Section 3,” he said. “As long as we showed proof of concept, it was important to make the strongest case we could as quickly as possible. But we identified Couy Griffin based on his own behavior, and we thought the case was strong.”
Griffin said he will continue to try to get Otero County to block election certifications even after he is removed from office. “Be prepared for this,” he said.