(CN) — Former President Donald Trump has been removed from Maine's 2024 primary ballot, according to a Thursday ruling from the state's Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.
Maine is now the second state to disqualify Trump from the upcoming presidential ballot over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. This month, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Trump's behavior that day violated the 14th Amendment's "insurrection clause."
Bellows, a Democrat, ultimately agreed. She found “Mr. Trump engaged in an insurrection against the United States.”
That bars him from serving as president since it violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which states that anyone who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the U.S. cannot hold the position, Bellows said.
“I do not reach this conclusion lightly,” Bellows wrote in her 28-page decision. “I am mindful that no secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section Three of the 14th Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.”
Bellows rejected Trump’s argument that his public statements and comments on Jan. 6 are protected by the First Amendment.
“Mr. Trump cites no precedent — and I am unaware of any — that permits the First Amendment to override a qualification for public office. Section Three of the 14th Amendment is not a criminal penalty nor is it a punishment. It is simply a qualification for office.”
Either way, since Trump “intended to incite lawless action” his speech was “unprotected” by the First Amendment, Bellows added.
“I conclude that the record establishes that Mr. Trump, 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,” Bellows wrote. “I likewise conclude that Mr. Trump was aware of the likelihood for violence and at least initially supported its use given he both encouraged it with incendiary rhetoric and took no timely action to stop it.”
Bellows issued her ruling after presiding over a hearing over Trump’s ballot eligibility this month, prompted by a challenge from a bipartisan group of former state lawmakers.
Other states are currently mulling over Trump’s ballot eligibility in court. Michigan and Minnesota already rejected similar efforts to boot him off the ballot. But Maine’s unique process allows for the secretary of state to make that call, resulting in Bellow’s decision on Thursday.
It was an outcome Trump and his lawyers likely feared. On Wednesday, Trump urged Bellows to recuse herself from ruling on his eligibility altogether, citing a longtime “personal bias against him.”
“The secretary has bluntly stated that President Trump should have been impeached, and later called him an ‘insurrectionist’ who ‘failed,’” Trump’s lawyers wrote in Wednesday’s letter, referencing some of Bellows’ past tweets about the former president.
Trump shared the letter in a campaign email to his supporters, where he called Bellows a “biased Democrat partisan” and a “Biden supporter who is incapable of making a fair decision.”
Bellows’ decision can be appealed through a state judiciary. But it remains likely that the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on Colorado’s decision in the coming weeks, creating a precedent that will trickle down into other states.
The Maine ruling is the latest in a myriad of legal battles being fought by Trump and his legal teams. He’s still fighting criminal indictments in Georgia and Washington D.C. and civil cases in Manhattan, just to name a few.
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