Further, I would note the distinct lack of written record regarding any such legislative intent as divined by SCOTUS in any of the congressional minutes or journals from 1866, when Congress approved Amendment XIV and Secretary of State William Seward transmitted it to the states for their ratification.

Now, I'm no attorney, but I do know U.S. history and I do know how to read the law, thanks to my experience writing it for the Hawaii state legislature. The original intent of Amendment XIV, Section 3 was to specifically bar former Confederates who engaged in insurrection against the United States and our Constitution from ever again holding elective and appointive public office at the local, state, territorial (Arizona and New Mexico weren't granted statehood until 1912) and federal levels.

Therefore, I'd say it was pretty clear that Congress intended and indeed, depended upon state, territorial and local jurisdictions to enforce Amendment XIV, Section 3. Further, that particular congressional intent was still apparent in September 2022 and March 2024, for reasons discussed below.

In January 2021, Otero County (NM) Commissioner Couy Griffin, the founder of Cowboys for Trump, traveled to Washington D.C. to attend Donald Trump's Jan. 6 rally on the National Mall, whereupon he then joined the mob, marched to the Capitol and engaged in insurrection. He was found guilty of criminal trespass in a federal bench trial in Washington on March 22, 2022. Pursuant to Amendment XIV, Section 3, he was then removed from his job as county commissioner by New Mexico District Judge Francis Mathew on Sept, 6, 2022, specifically citing the defendant's insurrectionary actions as due cause.

The U.S. Supreme Court's convoluted reasoning in Anderson v. Trump certainly didn't save Griffin. In fact, after the New Mexico Supreme Court upheld Mathews' ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court on March 18, 2024 declined to even hear Griffin's appeal and let the original decision stand, which means that Couy Griffin is now forever barred from holding public office for life, unless both chambers of Congress specifically decide otherwise by respective two-thirds majorities.

The late humanitarian Jane Addams once observed that the essence of immorality is our tendency to make exceptions of ourselves. I'd expound on that and offer that legally, immorality can be defined as the creation and upholding of a double standard of applicability for the exact same law, which is what the U.S. Supreme Court did by first exempting Donald Trump from being subject to disqualification under Article XIV, Section 3, only to then allow Couy Griffin's DQ to stand under the same constitutional provision.

And that's why I called Chief Justice Roberts and his MAGA colleagues corrupt - and I'll further add, corrupt beyond any reasonable hope of redemption. I stand by that opinion.