With more 14th Amendment challenges to Trump expected, will the US Supreme Court step in?
Now that Maine has joined Colorado, becoming the second state to disqualify Donald Trump from GOP primary ballots under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment -- among more than 30 that have faced calls to do so -- the U.S. Supreme Court is facing increased pressure to resolve conflicting rulings in the legal battle.
On Thursday, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced he was disqualified under the constitutional clause because of his activity surrounding the pro-Trump mob attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Her decision came just over a week after Colorado’s Supreme Court issued a similar order finding Trump ineligible.
But both Maine and Colorado’s rulings are on temporary pause, barring possible reconsideration by higher courts. The Colorado Republican Party appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court that state’s high court decision from earlier this week, and Trump’s lawyers say they will appeal as well.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), the watchdog group representing the plaintiffs in the Colorado case, filed a motion to expedite the U.S. Supreme Court's review of their challenge following the Colorado Republican Party's appeal to the nation's highest court. They proposed a rushed timeline with briefs due on Jan. 8 and oral arguments on Jan. 19. "Doing so would give the Court time to issue a ruling before Colorado voters begin receiving their ballots on February 12 and well before Super Tuesday, March 5," they wrote.
Meanwhile, the former president’s lawyers are also expected to file an appeal to Maine’s Superior Court on Tuesday, within the five-day outline dictated by Bellows in her Thursday decision.
Overall, the former president's eligibility under Section 3 to be on GOP primary ballots is still being challenged in more than a dozen states and with the Maine and Colorado decisions, advocates are hoping other state courts and officials will follow suit.
But if -- or when, many experts and advocates predict -- the U.S. Supreme Court takes up appeals of the Colorado case by the state's Republican Party or the Trump team, it would effectively freeze the various legal challenges in state and federal district courts across the country.
In her decision Thursday, Bellows acknowledged the U.S. Supreme Court could have the final word.
"While I am cognizant of the fact that my decision could soon be rendered a nullity by a decision of the United States Supreme Court in Anderson [the Colorado case], that possibility does not relieve me of my responsibility to act," Bellows wrote.
Amid the ruling against him in Maine this week, however, were victories for Trump in two other states that made decisions on calls to disqualify him under Section 3.
On Wednesday, the Michigan Supreme Court rejected an appeal aimed at barring former Trump from that state’s 2024 Republican primary ballot based on Section 3.
Then, hours after the Maine decision was announced, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber declined to reject Trump from the state’s GOP primary ballot despite calls from the state's Democratic lieutenant governor to consider declaring him ineligible under Section 3.
Trump's campaign has blasted all the challenges as undemocratic "election interference, calling Maine's Bellows an "ally of President Biden." In a fundraising email, Trump accused her of attempting to "deprive citizens of their right to vote" by moving to keep him off the primary ballot.
