Maine judge delays decision on removing Trump from ballot until Supreme Court rules in Colorado case

PORTLAND, Maine — PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A Maine judge on Wednesday stayed a decision on former President Donald Trump’s voting status to give the U.S. Supreme Court time to rule on a similar case in Colorado.

Trump’s lawyers appealed to state court when Secretary of State Shenna Bellows removed the Republican front-runner from the presidential primaries, but then asked the judge to pause the proceedings so the U.S. Supreme Court could rule on the Colorado case, leaving the lawsuit could come into question. .

Supreme Court Justice Michaela Murphy concluded that she did not have the authority to stay the legal proceedings, but she wrote that she did have the authority to send the case back to the Secretary of State with instructions to determine the outcome of the case to wait for the U.S. Supreme Court before withdrawing, amending, or upholding the case. her original decision.

In her decision, the judge said the issues raised in the Maine case mirror the issues raised in the Colorado case before the U.S. Supreme Court. She wrote that her decision “minimizes any potentially destabilizing effect of inconsistent decisions and will promote greater predictability in the weeks leading up to the primaries.”

“Simply put, the United States Supreme Court’s acceptance of the Colorado case changes everything,” she wrote.

Bellows concluded last month that Trump did not meet voting requirements under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause, citing his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. She became the first election official to ban Trump from voting under the 14th Amendment. Trump claimed Bellows was biased and exceeded her authority.

The nation’s highest court has never ruled on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars those “engaged in insurrection” from holding office. Some legal scholars say the post-Civil War clause applies to Trump because of his role in overturning the 2020 presidential election and encouraging his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol after he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Activists waged a campaign urging election officials to ban Trump under the clause.

Bellows, a Democrat, reviewed the judge’s decision on Wednesday and had no immediate comment, her spokesman said. Bellows had already postponed the implementation of her decision pending the outcome of the lawsuits. She had said she would follow the rule of law and abide by any legal decision.

She made her ruling a week after Colorado became the first state to exclude Trump from the ballot, although the decision has also been stayed in that state pending the outcome of the appeal to the nation’s highest court. The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for February 8.

Trump, who won the Iowa caucuses on Monday, remains on the ballot in Maine for the time being for the March 5 primary, given Saturday’s deadline for mailing overseas ballots. If the U.S. Supreme Court allows Trump to be excluded from the vote, Bellows must notify local election officials that votes cast for him will not be counted.

Maine has only four electoral votes, but is one of two states where they are divided. Trump earned one of Maine’s electors when he was elected in 2016 and again in 2020 when he lost reelection.