AUGUSTA, Maine — The U.S. Supreme Court gave former President Donald Trump a victory in early March by overturning state decisions to keep him off the primary ballot, but he is continuing to quietly fight Maine’s secretary of state in court.
The dispute revolves around Trump wanting Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, to withdraw all of her initial Dec. 28 decision that found he engaged in insurrection and thus violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, rather than only part of it that responded to the high court’s ruling that Congress, not states, can enforce that section against federal candidates.
It signifies Trump’s desire to clear his name as he also faces pending criminal and civil cases — including a federal election interference indictment tied to his 2020 defeat and the Capitol riots — ahead of his November rematch with President Joe Biden. Legal experts said Trump’s Maine fight looks to be more about politics rather than fears of future courts citing Bellows’ ruling.
“Obviously Trump would rather not have an administrative determination that he engaged in insurrection,” UCLA law professor Rick Hasen said. “But it is hard to see how such a determination would have any precedential value against him in another venue.”
In December, the Colorado Supreme Court became the nation’s first body to disqualify Trump from the primary ballot by finding he incited the violent Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol and violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, a post-Civil War clause.
A week later, Bellows reached the same conclusion. An Illinois judge similarly disqualified Trump in late February before the Supreme Court restored him in a unanimous March 4 opinion that said only Congress can enforce Section 3 against presidential candidates.
The day before the March 5 presidential primaries in Maine and numerous other states, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Colorado. Bellows withdrew a section of her ruling to clarify Maine could not enforce the insurrection clause against a presidential candidate.
But Bellows did not withdraw her entire opinion that found Trump incited the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol and was an insurrectionist. In a March 8 complaint before a lower state court, the former president’s attorneys wrote Trump is aggrieved by the decision “because it continues to improperly impugn his reputation by branding him an ‘insurrectionist.’”
The issue of candidates qualifying or not under the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause is “capable of repetition” in future legal challenges, Trump’s attorneys added.
Bellows responded to Trump’s attorneys on March 8 by noting the primary had passed and Trump’s votes were counted, making any objection to her decision “moot.” She added nothing in the remainder of her decision conflicted with the Supreme Court determining that states lack the authority to enforce the insurrection clause with respect to federal officers.
A Trump campaign spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment. Bellows spokesperson Emily Cook said a court resolution is not expected anytime soon, as the two sides will likely file briefs into late April or early May. Cook said Bellows otherwise followed the law and Constitution in issuing and then modifying her initial decision.
Donald Sherman, the chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal watchdog group that supported Bellows’ decision to disqualify Trump, said he understands why Trump “would prefer to rewrite history” after the high court kept him on the ballot.
Sherman noted that even after winning the 2016 election, Trump formed a commission to investigate his unsubstantiated accusations of widespread voter fraud in that election. It uncovered no evidence to back up Trump’s claims.
“The guy can’t take a win,” Sherman said.
