Former President Donald Trump is officially appealing Democratic Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ decision to bar him from the state’s March 5 primary ballot.
The appeal was filed Tuesday in Kennebec County Superior Court in Augusta by attorneys for Trump.
The 77-year-old Republican presidential front-runner was deemed ineligible to occupy the White House by Bellows on December 28 under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits individuals from holding office if they “have engaged in rebellion or sedition against” the Constitution.
Trump’s appeal alleges that Bellows “is a biased decision maker who should have recused himself and instead failed to provide legal due process” and that the 48-year-old chief election officer “lacks the legal authority” to decide the question of whether the former president. the president violated the rebellion clause of the Constitution.
“The Secretary made numerous errors of law and acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner,” the appeal said.
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday appealed the Maine Democratic secretary of state’s decision to bar him from the ballot over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks. AP
Lawyers for Trump asked the court to consider hearing oral arguments in the case by January 16.
Bellows’ decision to bar Trump from the ballot was criticized by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.
Maine’s two US senators – Susan Collins, a Republican, and Angus King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats – expressed their opposition to the decision.
“I believe the decision as to whether or not Mr. Trump should be reconsidered for the presidency should rest with the people as expressed in a free and fair election,” King said in a statement.
“The Secretary of State’s decision will 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 for his actions during the January 6, 2021, riots at the US Capitol but said last week that “until he is actually found guilty of the crime of sedition, he should be allowed on the ballot.”
The Trump campaign also condemned Bellows’ decision, calling it “an attempt to steal the election and disenfranchise the American voter.”
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung blasted Bellows as a “violent leftist” and a “hyperpartisan Biden-supporting Democrat” minutes after he issued his directive.
Bellows was previously the head of the Maine branch of the American Civil Liberties Union and has criticized Trump for his actions during the riots at the Capitol on social media.
“I do not take this conclusion lightly. Democracy is sacred,” he wrote in his 34-page decision on the various complaints challenging Trump’s qualifications in Maine.
“I am aware that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of voting access based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. However, I also realize that no presidential candidate has ever been involved in an insurgency,” he said, calling the riots at the Capitol “unprecedented and tragic.”
Bellows noted that his decision will be stayed until the state Supreme Court rules on Trump’s expected appeal.
Trump is also expected to petition the US Supreme Court to appeal the unprecedented 4-3 decision by the liberal Colorado Supreme Court on Dec. 19, which also barred the former president from the state’s primary vote 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 “interferes with the Party’s ability to place general election votes the candidate of his choice” based on “the allegation of subjective rebellion which the state has no constitutional authority to make.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
