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Trump appeals Maine ruling barring him from ballot under the Constitution’s insurrection clause

Maine secretary of state removes Trump from 2024 ballot
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Former President Donald Trump has formally appealed Democratic Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ decision to keep him off the state’s March 5 primary ballots.

The appeal was filed Tuesday in Kennebec County Superior Court in Augusta by lawyers for Trump. 

The 77-year-old Republican presidential primary front-runner was deemed not qualified to occupy the White House by Bellows Dec. 28 under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits individuals from holding office if they “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the Constitution. 

Trump’s appeal charges that Bellows “was a biased decisionmaker who should have recused herself and otherwise failed to provide lawful due process” and that the 48-year-old chief elections officer “had no legal authority” to rule on the question of whether the former president violated the Constiution’s insurrection clause. 

“The Secretary made multiple errors of law and acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner,” the appeal states. 

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday appealed a ruling by Maine’s Democratic secretary of state barring him from the ballot over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday appealed a ruling by Maine’s Democratic secretary of state barring him from the ballot over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. AP

Lawyers for Trump asked the court to consider hearing oral arguments in the case by Jan. 16. 

Bellows’ decision to bar Trump from the ballot was blasted by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. 

Both of Maine’s US senators — Susan Collins, a Republican, and Angus King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats — expressed their opposition to the ruling.

“I believe the decision as to whether or not Mr. Trump should again be considered for the presidency should rest with the people as expressed in free and fair elections,” King said in a statement.

 “The Secretary of State’s decision would deny thousands of Mainers the opportunity to vote for the candidate of their choice, and it should be overturned,” Collins said on X. 

Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) voted to impeach Trump over his actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol but said last week that “until he is actually found guilty of the crime of insurrection, he should be allowed on the ballot.” 

The Trump campaign also decried Bellows’ ruling, calling it “attempted theft of an election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter.” 

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung blasted Bellows as a “virulent leftist” and “hyper-partisan Biden-supporting Democrat” minutes after she issued her order.

Bellows was previously the head of Maine’s branch of the American Civil Liberties Union and has criticized Trump for his actions during the riot at the Capitol on social media.  

“I do not reach this conclusion lightly. Democracy is sacred,” she wrote in her 34-page decision on multiple complaints challenging Trump’s eligibility in Maine. 

“I am mindful that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection,” she stated, calling the riot at the Capitol “unprecedented and tragic.”

Bellows noted that her decision would be suspended until the state’s Superior Court ruled on Trump’s anticipated appeal. 

Trump is also expected to petition the US Supreme Court to appeal an unprecedented 4-3 ruling by the liberal Colorado Supreme Court Dec. 19, which similarly barred the former president from the state’s primary ballots under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. 

The Colorado Republican Party has already filed an appeal with the US Supreme Court, arguing that the party has been “irreparably harmed by the decision” to deem Trump ineligible for the White House and that the state court “interfered with the Party’s ability to place on the general election ballot the candidate of its choice” based on a “subjective claim of insurrection the state lacks any constitutional authority to make.”