Maine bars Trump from ballot as U.S. Supreme Court weighs State authority to block former President

Maine's Democratic Secretary of State removes Donald Trump from presidential primary ballot under 14th Amendment's insurrection clause.

Maine’s Democratic Secretary of State on December 28 removed former President Donald Trump from the State’s presidential primary ballot under the Constitution’s insurrection clause, becoming the first election official to take action unilaterally as the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to decide whether Mr. Trump remains eligible to continue his campaign.

The decision by Secretary of State Shenna Bellows follows a ruling earlier this month by the Colorado Supreme Court that booted Mr. Trump from the ballot there under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. That decision has been stayed until the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether Mr. Trump is barred by the Civil War-era provision, which prohibits those who “engaged in insurrection” from holding office.

The Trump campaign said it would appeal Ms. Bellows' decision to Maine's State courts, and Ms. Bellows suspended her ruling until that court system rules on the case. In the end, the nation's highest court will likely have the final say on whether Mr. Trump appears on the ballot in Maine and in the other States.

Ms. Bellows found that Mr. Trump could no longer run for his prior job because his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol violated Section 3, which bans from office those who “engaged in insurrection.” Ms. Bellows made the ruling after some state residents, including a bipartisan group of former lawmakers, challenged Mr. Trump’s position on the ballot.

“I do not reach this conclusion lightly,” Ms. Bellows wrote in her 34-page decision. “I am mindful that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.”

The Trump campaign immediately slammed the ruling. “We are witnessing, in real-time, the attempted theft of an election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.

Legal experts said that December 28th; ‘s ruling demonstrates the need for the nation’s highest court, which has never ruled on Section 3, to clarify what States can do.