Mark Graber, regents professor at the University of Maryland School of Law and constitutional expert, helped make the case for the disqualification of a New Mexico official who took part in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The case, says Graber, was an important test for efforts to bar from public office anyone who tried to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election. That could include the former president, who played a big role in inciting the mob.
Last month in a courtroom in Sante Fe, Graber testified that the words and actions of Couy Griffin, a Republican commissioner of Otero County and co-founder of Cowboys for Trump, met the standard for an insurrectionist, under Section 3 of the Fourteenth amendment. I quote it here, with my emphases in italics: “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 … shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
Earlier this year, in federal court, Griffin had been found guilty of entering a restricted area during the Capitol attack.
