The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from a former New Mexico county commissioner who was removed from office by a state court for his role in the January 6 protest. This left in place a lower court’s decision to remove and bar Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, founder of Cowboys for Trump, from office for “aid[ing] the insurrection even though he did not personally engage in violence.” Griffin was convicted of a misdemeanor for trespassing on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol. Griffin never entered the Capitol building.
His attorney Peter Ticktin stated in court filings submitting to the Supreme Court, “If the decision … is to stand, at least in New Mexico, it is now the crime of insurrection to gather people to pray together for the United States of America on the unmarked restricted grounds of the Capitol building.” He argued that Griffin was “fundamentally exercising his Constitutional rights to free speech and assembly.”
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