In a ruling likely to be challenged in state courts, Maine’s secretary of state decided on Thursday that Donald Trump is constitutionally disqualified from seeking the Presidency. This is the first decision against his candidacy by a state official in charge of elections.
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, using powers given to her office by the Maine legislature, concluded that she must exclude him from the primary election ballot because he does not meet the qualifications set by Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – the “insurrection clause.” She made her ruling in a 34-page opinion.
Because this ruling, if it survives court appeal, adds to the Colorado Supreme Court’s similar ruling against Trump, and because the two are in conflict with decisions from other state courts on the 14th Amendment question, that will enhance the chances that the U.S. Supreme Court will decide to review the controversy.
The constitutional dispute has just been appealed to the Justices by the leaders of Colorado’s state Republican Party, and Trump may soon file an appeal there on his own. The Maine official said that election deadlines in the state did not allow her to wait to see how the Supreme Court rules.
Maine’s presidential primary election is set for next March 5.
To allow time for her decision to be challenged in court, the secretary temporarily postponed its effect. Any appeal would go first to the state’s Superior Court – a trial court — and from there to its Law Court. (The Law Court is the name given to the state’s highest court, the Supreme Judicial Court, when it is hearing appeals involving interpretation of laws.) An appeal of her ruling must start within five days.
Secretary Bellows’ opinion was based on Maine election laws, in outlining her authority, and on the 14th Amendment in determining Trump’s ineligibility.
Like the Colorado court, Bellows read the evidence before her – much of it borrowed from filings in Colorado – as showing “that he engaged in insurrection” in the events surrounding the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Other conclusions drawn by this new ruling:
- The 14th Amendment ban on officeholding by insurrectionists is “self-executing,” so there is no need for Congress to take action to implement it.
- The disqualification clause applies to the Presidency as an officer of the United States.
- The events of January 6, 2021, meet the constitutional definition of an insurrection, and there is “robust support” for the conclusion that Trump personally engaged in it. There is no requirement that Trump first be convicted of the crime of insurrection.
- Trump’s statements stirring up the January 6 crowd amounted to “incitement” of “lawless actions,” and those statements are not protected free speech under the First Amendment.
In her summation, Secretary Bellows called the January 6 events “unprecedented and tragic” and added that “the evidence here demonstrates that they occurred at the behest of, and with the knowledge and support of the outgoing President. The U.S. Constitution does not tolerate an assault on the foundations of our government.”
The state official did reject one novel argument against Trump’s candidacy. It was a claim made by an attorney in the state that, because Trump claims that he actually won reelection in 2020, he was barred from running again by the Constitution’s 22d Amendment. That provision limits any President to two terms in office.
Bellows concluded that, factually, Trump did not win in 2020, and therefore he had not been elected twice and cannot be barred by that amendment.
Other challenges to Trump’s candidacy are pending in several other state courts.
