Trump Sues Maine Official Who Disqualified Him From Ballot

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump filed a lawsuit seeking to restore his name to Maine's presidential primary ballot after the state disqualified him over his attempt to reverse the result of the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday challenges a decision last week by Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who held that the former president is ineligible for another term because of a section of the US Constitution's 14th Amendment. The provision bars from federal office those who have sworn an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” against the US.

“Maine's secretary of state went outside of her authority, completely ignoring the Constitution when she summarily decided to remove President Trump's name from the ballot, interfere in the election, and disenfranchise the voters of her state,” Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, said in a statement.

Trump's filing sets in motion yet another legal fight over his eligibility for office likely to be resolved by the US Supreme Court. Republicans have already asked the justices to reverse a Colorado Supreme Court decision to remove Trump from that state's GOP primary ballot over his conduct in 2020. Trump is expected to file his own appeal of the Colorado decision soon.

“I have confidence in my decision and in the rule of law,” Bellows said in a statement. “Everyone who serves in government has a duty and obligation to uphold the Constitution first above all.”

Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in the 2024 race, has faced dozens of lawsuits across the country claiming he is ineligible for another term because of his effort to stay in the White House, which triggered the assault on the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. His conduct, including spreading false claims of voter fraud and enlisting bogus presidential electors in swing states he lost to Biden, has already led to separate federal and state criminal charges. 

Trump, who continues to falsely claim the vote was rigged against him, has called those charges part of a political vendetta and blasted the efforts to remove him from state ballots as corrupt and undemocratic. He says Bellows, a Democrat who has spoken out against him in the past, acted out of partisanship.

The complaint alleges that Bellows is biased against Trump and failed to give him a sufficient opportunity to challenge the ballot decision before it was finalized. Trump also argues that Bellows doesn't have authority under the 14th Amendment to disqualify him from the ballot.

Bellows, the top election official in Maine, made the call after receiving three challenges from voters. She said in her decision that she didn't “reach this conclusion lightly” and that “democracy is sacred.”

“I am mindful that no secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment,” she wrote. “I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.” 

(Updates with comment from a spokesman for Trump's campaign.)

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