Couy Griffin, Disqualified for Jan. 6?
September 8 | Posted by mrossol | 1st Amendment, American Thought, Big Govt, Election Issues, Fraud, Law, Losing FreedomSource: Couy Griffin, Disqualified for Jan. 6? – WSJ
The lawbreakers of Jan. 6 are being prosecuted for a variety of offenses. But should the courts also bar them from holding public office, like Confederates after the Civil War?
That happened Tuesday in New Mexico when a state judge disqualified Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin from holding public office. The 14th Amendment bars from office anyone who once took an oath to support the U.S. Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.” Judge Francis Mathew, of New Mexico’s First Judicial District, says this language means Mr. Griffin must be removed and “barred for life” from office.
The breadth of this precedent is troubling, which is no defense of Mr. Griffin’s conduct on Jan. 6. According to the court’s findings, he trespassed on restricted areas outside the Capitol and riled up the mob with a bullhorn. In a Facebook video the next day he said “Joe Biden will never be President” and floated the idea of “a Second Amendment rally on those same steps,” in which case “there’s going to be blood running out of that building.”
Mr. Griffin was acquitted of disorderly conduct but convicted of entering and remaining on restricted grounds. New Mexico lets private citizens sue to eject an unlawful officeholder, and a group of residents did so with help from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Tuesday’s ruling might be only the start of this disqualification campaign.
Judge Mathew says an “insurrection” is an assemblage that uses force or intimidation to “prevent the execution of one or more federal laws.” But consider the scope of that definition. Two years ago a crowd in Portland, Ore., yelled “feds go home” and gave cover to assaults on a U.S. courthouse. In 2018 a Los Angeles councilman and 17 others were arrested for obstructing access to an immigration facility. “We need, by the millions, to be coming out and blocking the entrance to federal detention centers,” he urged. Sound a little insurrectiony?
In Judge Mathew’s view, the 14th amendment can be triggered even if the public official in question was peaceful and wasn’t convicted of a crime. He says the disqualification provision covers anyone who’s “leagued” with insurrectionists, including those who engaged in “non-violent overt acts or words in furtherance of the insurrection.” Where is the line between a Jan. 6 rioter and a person who now regrets giving $50 to a “stop the steal” fund?
Some Democrats have talked about barring Republicans in Congress from running again on similar grounds. But down that road lies more political trouble as politicians use courts, rather than elections, to defeat their opponents. Mr. Griffin is best disqualified by the voters.
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