The former president of the United States Donald Trump presented this Tuesday the appeal against Maine decision deem him ineligible for the Republican primaries in that State, due to his role in the attack on the capitol on January 6, 2021.
Trump is also preparing to appeal a similar decision by the Colorado Court to the US Supreme Court, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced the elimination of the Republican’s name in the primaries on December 28, claiming that the former president cannot participate in the elections due to have been involved in an insurrection.
Trump “is not fit to hold the office of president” under the 14th amendment of the Constitution, stated, in an official document, Shenna Bellows, Secretary of State of Maine (Democrat), responsible for organizing the elections.
Shenna Bellows also claimed, last week, that she was “aware that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of access to the polls” based on that amendment.
“However, I am also aware that no presidential candidate has ever participated in an insurrection before,” said the secretary of state of Maine, in the northeastern United States.
Trump’s appeal to the Maine Supreme Court declares that Bellows has no jurisdiction over the matter and asks that Bellows be forced to run against Trump in the March 5 primary election.
“The secretary should have abstained [de decidir] due to his bias against President Trump, as evidenced by a documented history of prior statements prejudging this matter,” Trump’s lawyers stressed.
Maine’s decision to disqualify Trump for the position of head of state followed the position of the Colorado Supreme Court, which surprised in December by excluding the Republican magnate 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 US Capitol and found that the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, invoked to claim his ineligibility, in fact applies to a president.
The provision was added to the Constitution to prevent former Confederates from returning to government positions after the Civil War.
The language of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has come under scrutiny for the way it defines who is prohibited from holding office if they have “engaged in an insurrection or rebellion.”
The historic accusation against the former president on August 1 at the federal level and then on August 14 by the State of Georgia (southeast), for his allegedly illicit attempts to obtain the reversal of the results of the 2020 elections, opened a legal debate about his possible ineligibility, which led to appeals in several states.
The highest court in the land has never ruled on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
Source: TSF
