Former President Donald Trump formally appealed Maine Democratic Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ decision to keep him out of the state’s March 5 primary election.
The appeal was filed Tuesday in Kennebec County Superior Court in Augusta by Trump lawyers.
The 77-year-old front-runner in the Republican presidential primary was deemed unqualified to hold the White House by Bellows on Dec. 28 under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits people from holding public office if they “have participated in an insurrection or rebellion against “the Constitution.
Trump’s appeal accuses Bellows of “making biased decisions and should have recused herself and failed to provide due process of law” and that the 48-year-old elections director “had no legal authority” to rule on the question of whether the former president violated the insurrection clause of the Constitution.
“The Secretary committed multiple errors of law and acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner,” the appeal states.
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday appealed a ruling by Maine’s Democratic secretary of state that excluded him from the ballot for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. AP
Trump’s lawyers asked the court to consider hearing oral arguments in the case before Jan. 16.
Bellows’ decision to exclude Trump from the ballot was criticized by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Maine’s two U.S. senators — Susan Collins, a Republican, and Angus King, an independent who is part of the Democrats — expressed opposition to the ruling.
“I believe the decision about whether Mr. Trump should be considered for president again should rest with the people, as expressed in free and fair elections,” King said in a statement.
“The Secretary of State’s decision would deny thousands of Mainers the opportunity to vote for the candidate of their choice, and should be reversed,” Collins said on X.
Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) voted to impeach Trump for his actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, but said last week that “until he is convicted of the crime of insurrection, should be allowed on the ballot.”
The Trump campaign also condemned Bellows’ ruling, calling it an “attempted theft of an election and disenfranchisement of the American voter.”
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung criticized Bellows as a “virulent leftist” and a “hyperpartisan Democrat who supports Biden” minutes after she issued her order.
Bellows was previously head of the Maine branch of the American Civil Liberties Union and criticized Trump for his actions during the Capitol riot on social media.
“I do not come to this conclusion lightly. “Democracy is sacred,” he wrote in his 34-page decision on multiple complaints questioning Trump’s electability in Maine.
“I am aware that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of access to the polls based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. However, I am also aware that no presidential candidate has ever participated in an insurrection before,” he stated, calling the Capitol riot “tragic and unprecedented.”
Bellows said his decision would be put on hold until the state Superior Court rules on Trump’s anticipated appeal.
Trump is also expected to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to appeal an unprecedented 4-3 ruling by Colorado’s liberal Supreme Court on Dec. 19, which similarly barred the former president from participating in the state’s primary election under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Colorado Republican Party has already filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the party has been “irreparably harmed by the decision” to deem Trump ineligible for the White House and that the state court “interfered with the ability of the Party to place Trump in the White House. on the general election ballot the candidate of his choice” based on a “subjective claim of insurrection that the state lacks constitutional authority to present.”
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