AUGUSTA, Maine — Attorneys for former President Donald Trump and three former Maine officials challenging his eligibility for the state’s Republican primary ballot made final arguments Thursday on whether or not Colorado’s recent decision against Trump should have bearing here.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, initially planned on issuing a decision about Trump’s eligibility Friday after she ran a hearing that aired arguments last week. But after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Tuesday evening that Trump is ineligible to appear on that state’s ballot, Bellows allowed the parties to submit legal briefs on that decision.
Her decision, now set for early next week, will likely be appealed into the state court system, although the U.S. Supreme Court may soon settle issues arising from the Colorado decision that found Trump is ineligible due to the part of the 14th Amendment that bars candidates from office who engaged in insurrection against the country.
Here’s an overview of the additional arguments made Thursday by attorneys for Trump and the most prominent group of challengers — former Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling and former state Sens. Tom Saviello of Wilton and Kim Rosen of Bucksport.
The Colorado decision is ‘irrelevant’
Trump’s attorneys — Scott Gessler, Gary Lawkowski and Benjamin Hartwell — called the 4-3 decision from the Colorado Supreme Court a “decisive minority nationwide,” noting how no other states have disqualified Trump from the 2024 ballot.
The legal team also told Bellows in their final brief Thursday that Colorado’s decision is “irrelevant” for assessing Maine’s laws on the candidate challenge process, and they reiterated that Maine law does not give Bellows the authority to disqualify Trump.
“Maine voters cannot vote for Colorado candidates, and they have no legal interest in whom Colorado voters may choose in that state’s presidential primary,” the attorneys added.
Gessler, who was previously Colorado’s secretary of state, and the other attorneys said Bellows should follow the example of top election officials in Massachusetts and New Hampshire who have left the former president on their respective states’ ballots.
Trump, the clear GOP frontrunner to face off again with President Joe Biden in 2024, and his legal team said they are appealing the Colorado ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. If Trump loses there, his legal team conceded that Maine could then consider removing him.
Ranked-choice system offers a ‘safety mechanism’
If Trump’s eligibility gets tied up in higher courts and not resolved until after Maine’s primary on March 5, 2024, then Trump’s attorneys said Maine’s ranked-choice voting system gives the Republican’s supporters a “valid, second choice” in the general election.
“At worst, a disqualified candidate can simply be treated as a last-place candidate for the purposes of ranked choice voting,” the attorneys wrote, suggesting that Bellows could simply leave the issue for voters to decide with an adequate safeguard in place.
There is some irony here. Trump has slammed ranked-choice voting in the past, and Maine Republicans hate the system that the state became the first one to adopt in 2016. The state party has said it will ignore the ranked-choice system that will be used for the first time in Maine presidential primaries next year.
The Colorado decision is authoritative
Noting that challengers in Colorado and Maine argued Trump violated the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause by inciting the U.S. Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021, attorneys for the former Maine elected officials said Bellows should follow the Colorado ruling.
“Maine courts often rely on persuasive authority from highest courts in other states to resolve cases of first impression,” attorneys Jamie Kilbreth and Benjamin Gaines wrote on behalf of Strimling, Saviello and Rosen.
The attorneys also argued the legal doctrine of “collateral estoppel,” also known as issue preclusion, should make Bellows follow the Colorado Supreme Court’s determination that Trump engaged in “insurrection” on Jan. 6, 2021, by encouraging “violence and lawless action to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power” after he lost to Biden in 2020.
The U.S. Supreme Court could still reject this argument as part of the Colorado case given the conservative majority cemented by Trump. Even if Bellows follows them, any legal success for the progressive movement may be short-lived.
