Story out on Talking Points Memo
For the first time since 1869, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has been used to bar someone from holding public Office for life.
The New Mexico Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal from “Cowboys for Trump” founder Couy Griffin to overturn a decision that barred him from holding public office for life under the 14th Amendment’s Disqualification Clause.
Griffin was arrested and convicted for entering restricted areas at the Capitol on Jan, 6, 2021. At the time, he was serving as a commissioner of Otero County, New Mexico, where he was elected in 2018. But residents began pushing to have him removed from office in 2021 for a number of reasons, including allegedly using his position to promote Cowboys for Trump.
There has been a lot of talk about how the 3rd section of the 14th Amendment could be used to remove people who participated in the January 6, 2021 Mob which stormed the US Capitol Blding in an attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power and keep Donald Trump in the Office which the people of the United States had voted him out of on Nov 3, 2020.
But that talk hasn’t seen any action until now.
New Mexico locals and members of the Crewcrew (Citizens for Ethics) worked together to achieve this winning action:
Since this latest news is that the Supreme Court of New Mexico quashed an appeal from the now defunct Commissioner of Otero County, I am gonna assume that another appeal will head for the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and if he loses there, the US Supreme Court.
But let us all enjoy this moment of schadenfreude, until or unless we hear differently.
The only better news, of course, would be if the DOJ used this same constitutional path to prevent the former president from ever getting his name on a ballot in this country again.
The text of the Section, so that everyone can be clear on WHOM this applies to:
Amendment 14, Section 3 No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
[emphasis added for clarity]