The decision came after a group of former Maine lawmakers said Trump should be disqualified based on a provision of the U.S. Constitution that bars people from holding office if they engaged in ” an insurrection or rebellion” after taking the oath of office to the United States.
The former lawmakers – Kimberley Rosen, Thomas Saviello and Ethan Strimling – said in a statement that Bellows “stood on the side of democracy and our Constitution in his decision to exclude former President Donald Trump from the Maine ballot.” .
Both Rosen and Saviello are former Republican senators. Strimling is a former Democratic state senator.
The ruling only applies to Maine’s March primary election, but it could affect Trump’s status for the November general election. The ruling will likely increase pressure on the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve questions regarding Trump’s electability domestically under the constitutional provision known as Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
The court’s 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices appointed by Trump.
Trump has been charged in both a federal case and in Georgia for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election, but he has not been charged with insurrection related to the Jan. 6 attack. He widely leads opinion polls in the race for the Republican nomination.
Colorado’s highest court disqualified Trump from the state’s primary ballot on Dec. 19, making him the first candidate in U.S. history to be ruled ineligible for president for engaging in an insurrection.
Trump vowed to appeal the Colorado decision to the Supreme Court and called the election challenges “undemocratic.” The Colorado Republican Party filed its own appeal to the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Similar attempts to disqualify Trump in other states have been rejected. The highest court in Michigan, a key general election battleground state, declined Wednesday to hear a case seeking to disqualify Trump from the state’s presidential primary vote.
Maine is considered likely Democratic by nonpartisan election forecasters, meaning President Joe Biden is expected to win the state. But Trump won one electoral vote in Maine in both the 2016 and 2020 elections because of an unusual setup that allows the state to split its four Electoral College votes.
Candidates must win 270 Electoral College votes to win the presidency.
Advocacy groups and some anti-Trump voters have challenged Trump’s candidacy in several states under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was passed after the American Civil War to prevent former Confederates from serving in government.
Unlike other states, Bellows, who oversees Maine’s elections, had to make an initial decision regarding disqualification before it was considered by the courts.