A law professor warned that more states and courts may move to block former President Donald Trump from appearing on state ballots for the 2024 election unless the U.S. Supreme Court acts.
Thursday’s ruling from Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, to block the former president from appearing on the state’s ballot demonstrates the need for the nation’s highest court to clarify what states can do.
“It is clear that these decisions are going to keep popping up, and inconsistent decisions reached (like the many states keeping Trump on the ballot over challenges) until there is final and decisive guidance from the U.S. Supreme Court,” Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California-Los Angeles, wrote in response. “It seems a certainty that SCOTUS will have to address the merits sooner or later,” he added, referring to the U.S. Supreme Court.
And he wrote that “sooner is much better than later for the rights of voters to not be infringed and for the political stability of the country.”
Ms. Bellows was the first top election official to unilaterally strike a presidential candidate from the ballot under that provision. Last week, a majority of judges on the Colorado Supreme Court issued a ruling that also blocked the former president from appearing on the primary ballot, although it was confirmed by Colorado’s secretary of state that he will be included.
On Thursday, CNN legal analyst Elie Honig, in response to the Maine secretary of state’s decision, noted that she “heard from one fact witness, a law professor” and also “based her ruling on a lot of documents, but also YouTube clips, news reports, things that would never pass the bar in normal court.”
“She’s not a lawyer, by the way,” Mr. Honig said on the network, referring to the fact that Ms. Bellows graduated from Middlebury College with a degree in economic and environmental sustainability. “It’s a smartly written decision, clearly consulted with lawyers, but this is an unelected—she’s chosen by the state legislature. Chosen, elected by the legislature, but not democratically elected,” he added.
Mr. Honig added that it was “important to note” that her decision stated that “she’s basically following the same legal reasoning as the Colorado Supreme Court did last week, and she says in her ruling if this gets struck down in Colorado, we’re out of luck too. So she’s basing it on the same legal argument.”
“I do think the Supreme Court is going to take this case. I think tonight’s ruling makes it even more likely,” he said.
A Republican-backed petition was submitted to the top U.S. court earlier this week to appeal the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision. The justices are on break until Monday, Jan. 8.
But both decisions in Colorado and Maine are on hold while the legal process plays out. That means that President Trump remains on the ballot in Colorado and Maine and that his political fate is now in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Both decisions were made on interpretations of the U.S. Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment’s Section 3, a Civil War-era amendment that bars any candidate from running for office if they have engaged in a rebellion or insurrection against the government. While President Trump faces charges in multiple jurisdictions, he has not been charged or convicted of either crime.
Dozens of lawsuits have been filed by left-wing groups and one Republican presidential candidate to disqualify President Trump, claiming he engaged in insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, and is no longer qualified to run.
Meanwhile, the California secretary of state, a Democrat, declined to remove President Trump from the ballot earlier this week. “Removing a candidate from the ballot under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment is not something my office takes lightly and is not as simple as the requirement that a person be at least 35 years old to be president,” Secretary of State Shirley Weber wrote last week.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, also a Democrat, issued a statement saying that he opposes the move to remove the former president from his state’s ballot, suggesting that voters should decide his fate.
Trump Reaction
The Trump campaign said it would appeal Ms. Bellows’ decision to Maine’s state courts, and she also suspended her ruling until that court system rules on the case. In the end, it is likely that the nation’s highest court will have the final say on whether President Trump appears on the ballot in Maine and in the other states.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.
