2024 is proving to be anything but normal as the elections near. Especially after this stunning ruling.
Because this Supreme Court decision has thrown the presidential election into chaos.
The highest court in Maine has chosen not to rule on the question of whether former President Donald Trump may be removed from the 2024 ballot due to the 14th Amendment. Instead, they have affirmed a lower court’s ruling that the matter must be adjourned until the U.S. Supreme Court hears a case that is comparable to this one in Colorado.
Under a provision of the 14th Amendment that bars anybody who “engaged in insurrection” from occupying public office, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said in December that Trump did not fulfill the requirements to be included on the primary ballot in the state. Her decision to strikeout Trump’s name from the ballot was made only days after the Supreme Court of Colorado pulled him from the ballot in that state.
The trial court for the state of Maine, known as the Superior Court, issued a ruling on January 17 delaying Bellows’ removal of Trump until a decision was reached in the Colorado case by the United States Supreme Court. Last week, she pursued an appeal with the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, challenging that ruling.
Nevertheless, Trump will still be listed on Maine’s 2024 primary ballot until the U.S. Supreme Court makes a ruling, as the judgment of Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy was affirmed by the Supreme Judicial Court.
Maine Superior Court: Trump goes back on ballot pending final decision by the US Supreme Court. pic.twitter.com/SVBvEPMwy1
— 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕷𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖊𝖘𝖘™️ (@CL4WS_OUT) January 19, 2024
“We must await the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Colorado case before proceeding further,” Bellows stated in a statement shared with reporters. “As I said last week, I welcome a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in the Colorado case and hope that it will answer the important Fourteenth Amendment questions for all the states.”
The decision was a “devastating” blow to Bellows, who Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung characterized as President Joe Biden’s “acolyte.”
“This disenfranchisement effort, led by Crooked Joe’s Democrat acolyte and desperate partisan Secretary of State, was soundly rejected by Maine’s Supreme Court in a dismissal of the Secretary’s appeal of a prior order, which kept President Trump on the ballot,” Cheung said in a prepared statement. “President Trump is confident that the United States Supreme Court will ultimately be fair and eliminate these meritless, sham ‘14th Amendment’ cases once and for all. Until then, President Trump will continue to fight them off at every turn. Make America Great Again!”
With the primary season having already begun in New Hampshire and Iowa, the United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in the Colorado case on February 8. A verdict from the top court of the nation is anticipated shortly thereafter.
JUST IN:
The US Supreme Court will take up the case of President Trump being removed from the ballot in Colorado and Maine.
Oral arguments will begin on February 8.
Their decision will determine whether or not states can remove President Trump from the ballot over Section 4… pic.twitter.com/yIdjsWOnfj
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) January 5, 2024
In an amicus brief, 27 states voiced their concerns that the judgment made by the Colorado Supreme Court “threatens to throw the 2024 presidential election into chaos,” with Republican Attorneys General Todd Rokita of Indiana and Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia spearheading the charge.
There has been limited success in other states’ efforts to remove Trump from their ballots. Legal challenges seeking the omission of the former president from the ballot were rejected or dismissed by courts in Minnesota and Michigan, in addition to a Massachusetts elections board. According to New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan, who ruled that the 14th Amendment did not pertain to the election process, he is obligated to include everyone who fulfilled the filing criteria on the ballot.
This would, of course, include former President Donald Trump as he is the leading candidate in either major political party.
The vast majority of legal experts from all sorts of political backgrounds have noted that it would be extremely surprising to see even one or two votes go against Donald Trump in the determination of whether he should be allowed on the ballots in the rest of the primary and the general election season.
It’s likely to be a 9-0 decision in favor of Donald Trump to keep him on the ballots across the entire country. If any of the extremely liberal justices like the Joe Biden-nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson were to go out on a limb to be a lone dissent, it would likely tarnish their legal reputation for the rest of their lives.
Sure, they have a permanent post on the Supreme Court’s High Bench until they either resign or pass away. But no one wants to be known as the one person who disagreed with everyone else about a fairly cut and dry legal matter.
That’s what this is, after all. It’s as cut and dry as can be. Donald Trump has not been found guilty of any crime that would necessitate his removal from any presidential election ballots.
The Conservative Column will be updating our readers on any developments in the 2024 Presidential Election cycle.
