The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from a former New Mexico county commissioner who was kicked out of office over his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Former Otero County commissioner Couy Griffin, a cowboy pastor who rode to national political fame by embracing then-President Donald Trump with a series of horseback caravans, is the only elected official thus far to be banned from office in connection with the Capitol attack, which disrupted Congress as it was trying to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory over Trump.
At a 2022 trial in state district court, Griffin received the first disqualification from office in over a century under a provision of the 14th Amendment written to prevent former Confederates from serving in government after the Civil War.
Though the Supreme Court ruled this month that states don’t have the ability to bar Trump or other candidates for federal offices from the ballot, the justices said different rules apply to state and local candidates.
Not to mention the constitutional confusion. Declining the winner of the EC would either leave the country without a President, where maybe duties fall to the Speaker of the House, or let the House pick someone. Does the US even have a mechanism for calling an early election to get a replacement vote?
Still, I expect pundits to bring it up as a mechanism to satisfy SCOTUS. They have a lot of air time and blog space to fill before the election (nevermind the inauguration), and baiting the MAGA crowd with a Democratic Jan 6 insurrection will certainly drive engagement.
Nope the remedy is Congress voting in their state caucuses.