The Colorado Supreme Court ruling on Donald Trump’s ballot eligibility could come any day now — but other challenges are proceeding as well. On Friday, for example, there was a hearing in Maine over whether Trump can be on that state’s primary ballot.
Interestingly, a difference in Maine from some of the other cases around the country is that the hearing wasn’t presided over by a judge but rather by Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who has said she will decide the matter this week. Other secretaries of state have deferred to the courts, such as in the Colorado case that’s awaiting a decision from the state’s top court.
Maine’s Portland Press Herald reported that Friday’s hearing “focused largely on whether Bellows has the authority to decide whether Trump may appear on the ballot — or if that decision lies with federal authorities or courts,” as well as on the constitutional provision at issue, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Section 3 says:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Bellows, a Democrat, reportedly acknowledged that her forthcoming decision is appealable to the state’s courts, so she wouldn’t have the last word. Given all the cases filed across the country, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Trump’s eligibility could settle the matter nationwide. The Colorado case may still be in the best position to get to the U.S. justices, though they have discretion over whether and when to decide the issue.
A ruling keeping Trump off the ballot would more likely incentivize — if not practically require — the justices to step in. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold needs to certify the state’s primary ballot by Jan. 5, so the timing of the state high court ruling should leave time before then for a potential U.S. Supreme Court appeal.
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