SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
shenna bellows
Maine Judge Defers on Trump Ballot Decision Until Supreme Court Ruling
"Ultimately, we're happy with the court's decision to leave the secretary's ruling intact: that Trump is an insurrectionist and that the 14th Amendment applies," said one of the Mainers who sought his removal.
Jan 17, 2024
A Maine judge on Wednesday declined to weigh in on former President Donald Trump's challenge to his recent removal from the state's Republican presidential primary ballot, citing the looming U.S. Supreme Court decision in a similar case.
The U.S. Supreme Court—which has a right-wing supermajority that includes three Trump appointees—has agreed to hear a case out of Colorado, whose state Supreme Court last month barred the twice-impeached former president from this year's primary ballot. The justices plan to hear arguments in Trump v. Anderson on February 8.
Colorado and Maine are the only states that have determined the GOP front-runner should be barred from the ballot, but other initiatives are underway elsewhere. The lawsuits and applications to state election officials all rely on the 14th Amendment, which prohibits anyone who took an oath to the U.S. Constitution and then engaged in insurrection from holding office.
In response to petitions from Maine voters, Democratic Secretary of State Shenna Bellows disqualified Trump in December, noting that he, "over the course of several months and culminating on January 6, 2021, used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters and direct them to the Capitol to prevent certification of the 2020 election and the peaceful transfer of power."
The rule of law falls apart if there are exceptions for powerful people and popular former presidents. \n\nAs a country, we can\xe2\x80\x99t cave to Trump\xe2\x80\x99s bad faith complaints or give him a \xe2\x80\x9cget out of jail free card\xe2\x80\x9d because holding him accountable can be complicated and intimidating.— (@)
Trump—who on Monday won Iowa's Republican presidential caucuses, despite the 14th Amendment fights and his four ongoing criminal cases—appealed Bellows' decision, which led to Kennebec County Superior Court Judge Michaela Murphy's deferral on Wednesday. Murphy was initially appointed by a Democratic governor and then reappointed by a Republican.
"Maine's primary election is March 5, 2024, and the agreement by all the parties to stay the secretary's decision until Anderson is decided is important," Murphy wrote. "Unless the Supreme Court before that date finds President Trump disqualified to hold the office of president, eligible Maine voters who wish to cast their vote for him in the primary will be able to do so, with the winner being determined by ranked-choice voting."
One of the Mainers behind a petition to remove Trump, Democratic former Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling, said Wednesday: "Ultimately, we're happy with the court's decision to leave the secretary's ruling intact: that Trump is an insurrectionist and that the 14th Amendment applies. We'll decide next steps soon."
Murphy's move followed a similar decision by the Oregon Supreme Court, which last week deferred to the nation's highest court in a 14th Amendment case.
Free Speech for People, the group behind the Oregon case, called that decision "disappointing," adding: "While it is certainly possible that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Trump v. Anderson may resolve some or all of the issues in this case, it is also entirely possible that the U.S. Supreme Court may resolve that case based on particular details of the Colorado proceeding or that it may issue an order that does not resolve this case."
"Furthermore, no one knows when that decision will issue," the group stressed. "Waiting until the U.S. Supreme Court issues its order only compresses the time that the Oregon Supreme Court may have to resolve the issues that may remain if the U.S. Supreme Court does not fully resolve all the issues in this case."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Trump Appeals Removal From Maine Primary Ballot
"This is part of the process," the secretary of state responded. "I have confidence in my decision and confidence in the rule of law."
Jan 02, 2024
Attorneys for former U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday filed an expected appeal in the Maine Superior Court after the secretary of state barred the Republican front-runner from the state's 2024 primary ballot in response to formal legal challenges from voters.
Trump's presidential campaign had vowed to fight against Maine Democratic Secretary of State Shenna Bellows' determination last week that he is not qualified to serve as president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution after inciting the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
In the Tuesday filing, Trump's team argues that Bellows "was a biased decisionmaker who should have recused herself and otherwise failed to provide lawful due process," lacked legal authority to consider the federal constitutional issues presented by the challengers, and "made multiple errors of law and acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner."
Bellows pointed out to The Associated Press on Tuesday that she had suspended her decision until the courts rule on any appeal.
"This is part of the process. I have confidence in my decision and confidence in the rule of law," she told the AP of Trump's appeal. "This is Maine's process and it's really important that first and foremost every single one of us who serves in government uphold the Constitution and the laws of the state."
The battle in Maine comes as the right-wing U.S. Supreme Court considers whether to hear a challenge to Trump's eligibility in Colorado, where the state Supreme Court kicked him off the primary ballot last month, also citing the 14th Amendment.
The Colorado Republican Party asked the nation's highest court to weigh in on the case, which was launched by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and law firms representing GOP and unaffiliated voters.
As the Colorado voters' legal team filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, CREW president and CEO Noah Bookbinder said in a statement that "Donald Trump's unprecedented actions on January 6, 2021 unquestionably bar him from Colorado primary ballots under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, as determined by the Colorado Supreme Court."
"Today's brief underscores that Section 3 applies to former presidents, that our clients had the right to bring this challenge under Colorado state law, and that the First Amendment does not allow a state party to list disqualified candidates on the ballot," he added. "It is crucial that the Supreme Court take up and review this case quickly so that Colorodans and the American public have complete clarity on Donald Trump's eligibility before casting their ballots."
While Trump appointed three current members of the U.S. Supreme Court—Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—congressional Democrats have called on conservative Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from the Colorado case and any similar ones, given that his wife, Ginni Thomas, participated in the far-right effort to overthrow the 2020 election.
Both Bellows and Colorado Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold have faced threats because of Trump's disqualifications.
Laurence Tribe, the Carl M. Loeb University professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, and Dennis Aftergut, a former federal prosecutor who is now of counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy, defended Bellows' decision in a Tuesday opinion piece published by The Boston Globe.
"Bellows' decision enacted, in word and in deed, the too rarely remembered reality that the fair interpretation and faithful application of statutory as well as constitutional law is entrusted no less to executives than to judges—and that the U.S. system for electing presidents expressly empowers state legislatures to decide how each state's selection is to be made," the pair wrote.
"While we await that appeal and the Supreme Court's decision to review the Colorado Supreme Court's disqualification ruling, Bellows' decision stands as a paradigm," they added. "We are all witnesses to how a fearless public official exercises her delegated state authority in our Constitution's intricate federal system."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Maine, Colorado Officials Face Threats After Trump Barred From Ballots
"This behavior is unacceptable," declared Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows while her Colorado counterpart, Jena Griswold, vowed that "I will not be intimidated."
Dec 31, 2023
Depending on the decisions of U.S. courts, former President Donald Trump won't appear on 2024 primary ballots in Maine and Colorado—recent developments that have led to threats against top election officials in those states.
Trump is the GOP's front-runner to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden—who is seeking reelection next year—despite the Republican's ongoing criminal cases and arguments that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution disqualifies him from holding office again because he incited the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
In response to Maine voters formally challenging Trump's eligibility under the 14th Amendment, Democratic Secretary of State Shenna Bellows barred him from the primary ballot on Thursday—though she suspended the decision until courts rule on any appeal, and his campaign plans to file one. A day later, her home was "swatted."
"We should be able to agree to disagree on important issues without threats and violence."
"We are away for the holiday weekend. We were not home yesterday when threats escalated, and our home address was posted online," Bellows explained on Facebook Saturday. "It was a good thing because our home was swatted last night. That's when someone calls in a fake emergency to evoke a strong law enforcement response to scare the target. Swatting incidents have resulted in casualties although thankfully this one did not."
"This behavior is unacceptable," she declared. "The nonstop threatening communications the people who work for me endured all day yesterday is unacceptable. It's designed to scare not only me but also others into silence, to send a message."
After a hoax emergency call in which an individual claimed he had broken into the secretary's residence on Friday night, Maine State Police "conducted an investigation of the exterior and interior of the home at Bellows' request," News Center Maine reported, citing state Department of Public Safety spokesperson Shannon Moss.
"Moss said nothing suspicious was found," the outlet noted. "The incident is still under investigation, and Moss said no further information will be released at this time."
Along with slamming the swatting, Bellows on Saturday called out "extraordinarily dehumanizing fake images" of her recently posted online, including by the Maine Wire: "These dehumanizing images and threatening communications directed at me and people I love are dangerous. We should be able to agree to disagree on important issues without threats and violence."
Colorado Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold has also faced mounting threats since the Colorado Supreme Court earlier this month disqualified Trump from the state's primary ballot—a decision that is expected to be swiftly reviewed by the right-wing majority U.S. Supreme Court, to which the ex-president appointed three justices.
"Within three weeks of the lawsuit being filed, I received 64 death threats. I stopped counting after that," Griswold said Saturday on social media. "I will not be intimidated. Democracy and peace will triumph over tyranny and violence."
Griswold also shared a recent HuffPostinterview in which she discussed threats against her from Trump supporters.
"I've been concerned about violence and threats of violence since Donald Trump incited the insurrection," said Griswold, who has been Colorado's secretary of state since 2019. "I've received hundreds if not thousands of threats at this point."
"So yes, I'm extremely concerned," she told HuffPost. "It just underlines that Donald Trump is a major threat to American democracy, elections, and stability. He uses threats and intimidation against his political opponents. When he doesn't win elections, he tries to steal them. He is a dangerous leader for this country."
Griswold also pointed out that she is part of the case that got Trump kicked off the ballot in Colorado because of her role, but she didn't file the suit—it was brought by a watchdog group and legal team representing GOP and unaffiliated voters.
Griswold further explained in an MSNBC appearance on Friday that "in Maine, the secretary of state makes determinations like this. By the way, in Colorado, I would also be in the place of making a determination if a lawsuit wasn't filed so early."
"But in Maine, I think Shenna Bellows made the right decision in agreement with the Colorado Supreme Court," she said. "Donald Trump incited an insurrection to try to steal the presidency from the American people. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment makes it very clear that elected officials can't do that and then serve in office again."
"I don't believe there should be some loophole in the Constitution that puts only Donald Trump above the law and Constitution when he incites rebellion or incites an insurrection," she continued. "The other thing I would say is I do think Secretary Bellows is brave and courageous."
"She is the first individual by herself having to make this decision," Griswold noted. "And we are acutely aware of the threat environment that we work in. So I commend her for her actions and we'll see how the litigation inevitably plays out in the state of Maine."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular