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When Maine ratified the 14th Amendment on Jan. 19, 1867, those state legislators couldn’t have foreseen that Secretary of State Shenna Bellows would issue a decision almost 157 years later disqualifying a previous president from appearing on Maine ballots. Until former President Donald Trump organized efforts to block the peaceful transition of power, no one else could have either.
Now we have to look back at what it meant then and how it was applied.
As the Congressional Research Service explains, the disqualification clause “does not expressly require a criminal conviction, and historically one was not necessary.”
During the U.S. Senate’s debate in 1866, U.S. Sen. Lot M. Morrill, a Mainer who later served as governor, noted “an obvious distinction between the penalty which the State affixes to a crime and that disability which the State imposes and has the right to impose against persons whom it does not choose to intrust with official station.” U.S. Sen. John Henderson of Missouri stated, “This is an act fixing the qualifications of officers and and not an act for the punishment of crime.”
Nor was participation in violence required. Philip Thomas of Maryland was barred from holding a Senate seat after allowing his minor son to fight the Union and giving him $100 that could help the Confederacy.
Recently conservative legal scholars have argued that Trump should be disqualified under the 14th Amendment. While the decision by Bellows was reasonable, there remain legal questions about disqualifying Trump, who is simultaneously telling courts he can’t be disqualified from ballots unless he’s been found guilty and that he can’t be prosecuted for anything he did when he was president.
I suspect the U.S. Supreme Court will enable Trump to be on ballots now and allow prosecutions of Trump to go forward. But, all that is still uncertain.
What is clear is that Bellows epitomizes public service. Whatever one thinks of her decision, it took more courage than U.S. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith’s iconic speech against McCarthyism.
In carrying out her legal obligation to respond to petitions about whether candidates are qualified for office, Bellows, like everyone who’s observed Trump and his backers, must have known she’d be threatened. And indeed she has. Along with calls for violence, her address was shared on far-right message boards. The Maine Wire, a publication of the conservative Maine Policy Institute, created and put out images of her in Nazi garb. Someone who shared one of those images showed up near Bellows’ house. Her home was “swatted.”
I’m not sure if I agree with the Bellows’ decision, but what’s striking is the meticulous procedure and analysis used in responding to three disqualification petitions, one of which came from two Republicans and one Democrat. Maine law requires the secretary of state to respond to these. There was a hearing, with evidence and the opportunity to speak and file briefs. Trump objected to some exhibits; Bellows excluded nearly 20 of those. (Similarly, in Colorado, there was a five-day trial after six Republican and independent petitioners filed to disqualify Trump under the 14th Amendment.)
Bellows used a careful process. She even stayed her disqualification decision, so Trump will be on the ballot unless a court decides otherwise. Claims she was tyrannical are thus absurd.
What a stark contrast to Trump, who lost more than 60 election cases and refused to accept the rulings. Instead, he called his backers to come to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, telling them it would “be wild,” energizing extremists. Trump tried to get Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” enough votes for him to win the state, worked to create fraudulent electoral votes and pressured then Vice President Mike Pence to count them and exclude electoral votes based on certified vote totals. Insurrectionists at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 chanted “Hang Mike Pence,” attacked police officers and caused Pence and senators and representatives to flee and hide until the crowd was dispersed. Trump continues to lie about the 2020 election and Jan. 6.
Now some Maine Republicans want to impeach Bellows, a step the Maine Constitution allows “for misdemeanor in office.” Whether one agrees with her decision, such an impeachment shows disrespect for the care Bellows took in carrying out her legal duty and the courage it required in the era of Trumpist vigilantism.
