Maine court puts Trump ballot decision on hold

Washington — A Maine court on Wednesday said the state should wait for the US Supreme Court to rule on a challenge to Donald Trump’s appearance on Colorado’s Republican primary ballot before re-evaluating a similar challenge in the northeast state.

State superior court judge Michaela Murphy ordered Maine secretary of state Shanna Bellows, a Democrat, to reassess her decision to bar the former US president from the primary ballot within 30 days after the Supreme Court rules.

Murphy found that the Supreme Court’s decision to take the Colorado case “changes everything about the order in which these issues should be decided and by which court”.

Bellows in December determined that Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, was ineligible to hold office again under a provision in the US constitution that bars people who have engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” from holding office.

Depending on the sweep of its ruling in the Colorado case, the US Supreme Court could resolve the issue nationwide in the coming weeks, with oral arguments scheduled for February 8.

Maine’s primary is scheduled for March 5.

Maine and Colorado are so far the only two states to disqualify Trump under the constitutional provision, known as section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Both states have put their decisions on hold while Trump appeals.

Courts and election officials in several other states have rejected similar ballot challenges to Trump’s candidacy.

Bellows granted a petition from a group of former Maine legislators who sought to disqualify Trump. She concluded Trump incited an insurrection in an attempt to hold onto power following his defeat in the 2020 election, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

Trump appealed the ruling, saying Bellows was biased against him and that he did not have the ability to properly defend himself. He denied engaging in insurrection.

Trump has decried the ballot challenges as an undemocratic attempt at election interference by his political adversaries. Proponents of disqualification have argued that holding Trump accountable under the constitution supports democratic values.

Reuters