Maine became the second US state to declare former President Donald Trump ineligible for the 2024 presidential election, withdrawing the Republican’s name from the primaries due to his actions during the 2020 election.
Trump “is not fit to serve as president” under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, Shenna Bellows, the Maine Secretary of State (Democrat) responsible for administering the election, said in an official document.
The decision to disqualify Trump as head of state follows the position of the Colorado Supreme Court, which surprised this month by excluding the Republican tycoon from that state’s primaries.
The Colorado Supreme Court had concluded that Trump was involved in a riot on January 6, 2021, during the attack on the United States Capitol, and held that the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which was invoked to claim his incapacitation, actually applies to a president.
The provision was added to the Constitution to prevent former Confederates from returning to their government positions after the Civil War.
The wording in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has come under scrutiny for the way it defines who is disqualified from holding office if he or she has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion.”
The historic indictment of the former president on August 1 at the federal level and then on August 14 by the state of Georgia (southeast), for his alleged unauthorized attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, opened a legal debate over his possible exclusion, leading to appeals in several states.
Following the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision, Trump immediately announced the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The highest court in the land has never ruled on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
Shenna Bellows also assured that she was “aware that no Secretary of State has ever denied a presidential candidate access to the ballot box” based on that amendment, according to the document released by several North American media outlets.
“I am also aware, however, that no presidential candidate has ever participated in an insurrection before,” said the secretary of state of Maine in the northeastern US.
This week, the Michigan Supreme Court declined to disqualify Trump from the 2024 election process. The justices argued that the case raises a political issue that should not be resolved by the judiciary and dismissed the action without even holding a trial.
Source: DN
