Maine Secretary Of State Removes Donald Trump From Primary Ballot
Donald Trump is set to be off yet another primary ballot, thanks to a decision from the far left Maine Secretary of State.
This is the second state in the past few weeks to remove Trump from the presidential primary ballot, after the Colorado State Supreme Court issued a similar ruling. This decision though, is far worse, considering it was a unilateral choice by the Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows, and not as a result of a court case.
Both decisions were supposedly made under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which, in theory, limits the ability of individuals who have engaged in an insurrection to hold future office. Trump, however, has not been charged with insurrection or convicted of it.
Yet far left judges in Colorado and a rogue state official in Maine have ruled him ineligible anyway.
US President Donald Trump boards Air Force One before departing Harlingen, Texas on January 12, 2021. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Politically Motivated Anti-Donald Trump Decisions Accomplish Nothing
Instead of their intended effect, to keep Trump off the ballot, these rulings will inevitably help him by shoring up his base of support.
It's an inevitability that these decisions are appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where they will be almost certainly struck down as an excessive overreach and misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment.
The decision from Bellows specifically claims that Trump "engaged in insurrection,"
“I do not reach this conclusion lightly,” Bellows wrote in the decision, according to the Associated Press. “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." She continues, "I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.”
That language and heated rhetoric serves perfectly to support the Trump campaign's case that he's being targeted unfairly, especially considering he's never been charged with insurrection.
Unsurprisingly, most of the major media outlets have yet to condemn this obvious politically motivated attempt to influence the election. Whereas if this same action was taken against Joe Biden, despite having never been charged with the act he's being punished for, there would be endless howls that right wing judges or state officials were engaging in authoritarianism and dictatorial overreach, with echoes of Nazi Germany.
The Trump campaign has already announced that it will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. Where it will likely win. Easily. And with Bellows saying she will stay her ruling until the Supreme Court decides, it's unlikely that this attack on democracy will come into effect anyway.