Maine Secretary Of State Yanks Trump Right Off Primary Ballot, For Doing Bad Things!
That's two!
Maine yesterday became the second state to determine that Donald Trump is constitutionally ineligible to be president again, so he can’t be on the primary election ballot. Last week, Colorado’s state supreme court came to the same conclusion as the result of a lawsuit; the decision in Maine, by contrast, was made unilaterally by Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D), after a challenge from several Maine voters, including a group of former state legislators from both parties, so that was either bipartisan or proof that all RINOs must be purged.
Bellows cited the same reason as the Colorado court, the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment prohibition on anyone serving if they had 1) taken an oath to uphold the Constitution, but later 2) “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the US America, like such as.
The Trump campaign is already planning to appeal to state courts, so in this instance the legal process is just getting started, because all 50 states have different ways of running elections. Ultimately, since other states have turned down similar 14th Amendment challenges, the issue will undoubtedly wind up at the US Supreme Court, which may decide that Trump remains eligible because the 14th Amendment wasn’t notarized on the right page.
Also, Rhetoric Points to Secretary Bellows for this nice turn of phrase in her decision:
“I do not reach this conclusion lightly. I am mindful that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.”
If both decisions somehow survive legal challenges, the Associated Press notes that removing Trump from the Maine ballot could have a greater impact in a close election than it would in Colorado, where he wasn’t likely to get the state’s 10 electoral votes:
While Maine has just four electoral votes, it’s one of two states to split them. Trump won one of Maine’s electors in 2020, so having him off the ballot there, should he emerge as the Republican general election candidate, could have outsized implications in a race that is expected to be narrowly decided.
That’s in contrast to Colorado, which Trump lost by 13 percentage points in 2020 and where he wasn’t expected to compete in November if he wins the Republican presidential nomination.
However, we should note that, given the composition of the Alito Court, the chances of any 14th Amendment challenges succeeding are lower than the prospects of Trump realizing his entire life has been a lie and retiring from public life to study the mystic ways of the Ninja at a secret Shaolin temple, emerging as a warrior-priest-civil rights attorney who fights for the downtrodden and disenfranchised.
Sure, Marvel Comics, you can have that for a Dr. Strange sequel.
There’s also the question of how much these challenges to Trump’s eligibility might boost voter turnout by angry Trump mobs come November, however justified they are on constitutional grounds. Not that we should do things out of fear of Trumpers violently losing their shit — that’s their brand. But just as the overturning of Roe v. Wade has been a motivator for huge numbers of Democratic voters in almost every election at every level since, if Trump really is stricken from a state ballot or four, that could be another factor in 2024 Dem get-out-the vote efforts.
Or hell, by mid-August this may be nothing, because that’s a lot of time for Trump to do even crazier shit, the end.
PREVIOUSLY!
[AP / Vintage postcard via Boston Public Library, Creative Commons License 2.0]
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Breaking: A federal appeals court rule that TFG can face civil lawsuits brought by the law enforcement officers who defended Congress against his meth addled, neck-bearded insurrectionists.
Officer Fanone, stand back and stand by
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