Posted on 01/19/2024 2:50:18 PM PST by CedarDave
The U.S. Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction to review a New Mexico ruling that ousted Couy Griffin from his seat on the Otero County Commission, a group of attorneys argued this week.
Griffin has asked the nation’s highest court to review a decision by a New Mexico judge who booted Griffin from office in 2022 for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The September 2022 ruling marked the first time since 1869 that someone was removed from public office for violating Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
Griffin’s attorneys argued in a petition filed last year that the New Mexico district judge erred in finding that Griffin’s actions violated the insurrection clause in the 14th Amendment.
A brief filed Tuesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to deny Griffin’s petition, arguing that he was ousted under a New Mexico law that allows the removal of public officials who commit acts that disqualify them from office.
The state law was the mechanism used by a group of New Mexico residents to remove Griffin from office, said Nikhel Sus, an attorney for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, D.C., who co-authored the brief.
“In New Mexico, residents can go to court and sue the office holder to adjudicate whether they are disqualified,” Sus said in a phone interview Thursday. “If they are disqualified, the court can order that the office holder be removed from office, and that’s what happened in Mr. Griffin’s case.”
In Griffin’s case, the state law was used in tandem with the insurrection clause in the 14th Amendment, Sus said. Because Griffin was removed from office under a New Mexico law, the U.S. Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction to overturn the decision, the attorneys argue in their brief.
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
Three New Mexico residents filed a civil lawsuit against Griffin, arguing that he violated the 14th Amendment when he entered the Capitol grounds that day.
Griffin represented himself in a civil bench trial before 1st Judicial District Judge Francis Mathew, who found that Griffin had engaged in an insurrection and ordered his removal as an Otero County commissioner.
“It’s a disgrace that a bench trial before a liberal Democrat judge can remove a duly elected official,” Griffin said Thursday in a phone interview. “It’s just fraud and corruption in its purest form.”
The argument that the SCOTUS should dismiss the case because he was disqualified under New Mexico law should be disregarded because the judge applying the NM law used the Jan 6 "insurrection" conviction as the reason for removing him. However, without reviewing the legal filings, it may be that he was also removed for the conviction of the misdemeanor of trespassing at the Capital.
Pelosi had directed that temporary fencing be erected around the Capital grounds, including the grassy areas, to prevent access to the steps and the building itself. This was breached by the protestors.
the supreme court will have no option but to throw ALL of these out!
Otherwise, 100’s of people are going to be thrown off the ballot on both sides from now until eternity.
What would that have accomplished?
Nothing.
"Threat To Democracy", my shiney White a$$.
Not to mention a violation of basic due process and civil rights.
. just wow! Is this referring to the fencing that was similar to bicycle racks? fencing that was removed by whom? MAGA? Feds? before many people even got to the Capitol.
Dems are so evil. They are happy to ruin a person's life for being on the grass hundreds of yards from the Capitol building itself.
They were bike rakes.
Epps whispers into Sansells ear and seconds later he attacks the few capital police that are there using the bike rakes to push them out of the way
Did Sansells get arrested / convicted/ jailed? Sansells is not a name I am familiar with.
CREW ping
“...A brief filed Tuesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to deny Griffin’s petition, arguing that he was ousted under a New Mexico law that allows the removal of public officials who commit acts that disqualify them from office.
The state law was the mechanism used by a group of New Mexico residents to remove Griffin from office, said Nikhel Sus, an attorney for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, D.C., who co-authored the brief. ...”
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