Maine Supreme Court Deals Blow to Secretary of State's Plan to Keep Trump Off the Ballot
Former President Donald Trump is one step closer to remaining on the ballot for Maine’s presidential primary after a decision from the state’s Supreme Court on Wednesday — or at least, he’s no closer to being removed form it.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court dismissed an appeal from Maine’s Democratic Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows, who attempted to keep Trump off the ballot using the same argument state officials have made — that Trump engaged in an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, and therefore is prohibited by the so-called “insurrection clause” of the 14th Amendment from serving as president again.
Bellows has said that after “several residents” of her state complained about Trump’s eligibility for the office, she was “bound by state law” to make a decision on the matter, according to The Associated Press.
The decision made by Bellows, who was elected to her current role by Maine’s Democrat-controlled legislature, was that Trump was guilty of insurrection and, presumably, that the insurrection clause applies to the presidency, and therefore he cannot serve in that role again.
However, after a court decided that Bellows needed to wait for a federal Supreme Court ruling on the matter before implementing her determination, she appealed to the state Supreme Court, which promptly — and unanimously — shut her down.
“The Secretary of State suggests that there is irreparable harm because a delay in certainty about whether Trump’s name should appear on the primary ballot will result in voter confusion,” the court wrote in its decision. “This uncertainty is, however, precisely what guides our decision not to undertake immediate appellate review in this particular case.”
The court ordered Bellows not to enforce her December decision, but also not to withdraw or modify it until the Supreme Court ruled.
SCOTUS will hear arguments in the case on Feb. 8, less than a month before Maine’s scheduled March 5 primary.
In fact, Maine has already mailed some absentee ballots to state residents currently overseas, the AP noted.
Unsurprisingly, the Trump campaign took a victory lap.
“This evening, in Maine, Crooked Joe Biden was dealt a devastating in blow in his desperate attempt to remove President Trump’s name from the ballot and to deprive tens of millions of Americans of the right to vote for the candidate of their choice,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement emailed to The Western Journal.
“This disenfranchisement effort, lead by Crooked Joe’s Democrat acolyte and desperate partisan Secretary of State, was soundly rejected by Maine’s Supreme Court in a dismissal of the Secretary’s appeal of a prior order, which kept President Trump on the ballot,” Cheung added.
“President Trump is confident that the the United States Supreme Court will ultimately be fair and eliminate these meritless, sham ‘14th Amendment’ cases once and for all,” Cheung concluded. “Until then, President Trump will continue to fight them off at every turn. Make America Great Again!”
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment reads: “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, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
Some have theorized that the wording prohibits Trump from holding office again because of his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, while others argue that not only has Trump not been found guilty of insurrection by a jury of his peers — he hasn’t even been criminally charged with it — but also the amendment doesn’t mention the presidency or vice presidency specifically and therefore does not apply to those offices.
The amendment was passed by the Senate in 1866, following the end of the Civil War, and was designed in part to keep former rebels out of the federal government.
On Monday, the Massachusetts State Ballot Law Commission dismissed a similar challenge to Trump’s eligibility to appear on that state’s ballots, as have judges in Michigan, Minnesota and “other key states,” according to CNN.
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