A judge halted on Wednesday a top Maine official’s move to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 primary ballot.
Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy remanded the matter to Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, but ordered a pause until a decision is made in a similar case from Colorado for a new ruling to be issued on Trump’s eligibility.
The result “minimizes any potentially destabilizing effect of inconsistent decisions and will promote greater predictability in the weeks ahead of the primary election,” the judge wrote. “The Court therefore concludes that its remand of this matter is in the public interest.”
Bellows, a Democrat, removed Trump from her state’s ballot for the March 5 primary last month on the view that he violated the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause due to his conduct leading up to the U.S. Capitol breach on January 6, 2021.
Trump responded by appealing the decision to the Maine Superior Court. His lawyers argued that Bellows was biased against their client and made a decision based on “untrustworthy evidence.”
A flurry of 14th Amendment cases in other states have been dismissed in court or remain active. One particular lawsuit, in Colorado, led to the state’s supreme court last month to kick Trump off the primary ballot.
The U.S. Supreme Court, on which there are three Trump nominees, agreed to review the Colorado decision. Oral arguments are scheduled to take place on February 8.
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“I fought really hard to get three very, very good people, and they’re great people, very smart people, and I just hope that they’re going to be fair,” Trump said at a recent event in Iowa, according to NBC News.
Trump is running a third campaign for the White House while also facing a bevy of criminal cases, some of which are tied to January 6, as well as civil litigation. The former president has broadly denied any wrongdoing.
Despite the legal hurdles, Trump leads in polls examining the Republican primary contest. On Monday, he emerged victorious from the Iowa caucuses over his GOP rivals, which include Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Governor and U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley.