Before the Capitol attack, even many constitutional lawyers rarely thought about Section 3, a provision that isn’t taught at most law schools.

It took months before the first mention of Section 3 in a public document. Free Speech For People, a Massachusetts-based liberal nonprofit, sent letters to top election officials in all 50 states in June 2021, warning them not to place Trump on the ballot should he run again in 2024 because he had violated the provision.

None of them took action, part of a general silence in reaction to the group’s arguments.

“People were just treating it as something that was not serious,” recalled John Bonifaz, the group’s co-founder.

By January 2022, the group decided to test Section 3 in court.

Looking for a lower-level defendant, Sherman’s organization zeroed in on Couy Griffin. The subject of one of the earliest Jan. 6 prosecutions, Griffin already has a rich legal record. He was was recorded in a restricted area of the U.S. Capitol as head of a group called Cowboys for Trump. Griffin was convicted of illegally entering the Capitol, but acquitted of engaging in disorderly conduct.

He still served as a commissioner in a rural New Mexico county, which kept CREW’s attention on him. On Sept. 6, 2022, a New Mexico judge ordered Griffin removed from his position. It was the first time in more than 100 years an official had been removed under Section 3. Griffin has appealed to the Supreme Court.

  • ironsoap@lemmy.oneEnglish
    49·
    9 months ago

    The end is the most enlighting vs the legal losses:

    With most jurisdictions dodging the questions at the heart of the case, it can create a misleading impression that things have gone well for the former president.

    “The cases have gone poorly for Trump,” Derek Muller, a Notre Dame law professor who has followed the cases closely, wrote Friday in a blog post. “He lost on the merits in the only two jurisdictions that got to the merits, Colorado and Maine.”

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      432·
      9 months ago

      He didn’t lose Colorado. That judge may well have handed his ass to him.

      She ruled that Trump factually engaged in insurrection. In our legal system, a higher court has to take that finding as fact. Her decision was getting appealed no matter what, so she threw a solid “fuck you” in there.