The former president of USA donald trump (2017-2021) asked a court this Tuesday to reverse the decision of the state of Maine to expel him from the Republican primaries in that territory for his role during the assault on the Capitol from January 6, 2021.
The former ruler is also preparing to appeal a similar decision by the Colorado Court to the Supreme Court.
The Secretary of State of Maine, Democrat Shenna Bellows, announced Trump’s disqualification last Thursday, alleging that the former president cannot participate in the elections for having participated in a “insurrection”.
The appeal by Trump’s lawyers, filed in Kennebec Superior Court, asserts that Bellows “had no legal authority” to eliminate the Republican from the primaries, and that she should have recused herself for being “partial”.
The ex-president “will be illegally excluded from the vote as a result of the secretary’s actions,” can be read in the petition.
An unprecedented failure
On December 19, in a ruling unprecedented in United States history, the Colorado Supreme Court expelled Trump from the Republican Party primaries in that state for his role in the assault on the Capitol.
The Colorado Republican Party asked the US Supreme Court to review the ruling, and Trump himself is expected to do the same in the coming hours, according to The Washington Post.
Later, on December 28, Maine became the second state to disqualify Trump. In this case, the decision was made by Bellows, the authority in charge of organizing the elections in that constituency.
In both cases, authorities considered that Trump participated in an attempt to “insurrection”which disqualifies him from holding public office, according to their interpretation of the Third Section of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
That amendment was approved in 1868, after the Civil War, with the aim of preventing the southern rebels of the Confederacy, who had sworn to the Constitution and then betrayed it, from coming to power.
These decisions, for now, only affect Colorado and Maine because in the US federal system each state – and not the nation – is responsible for organizing the elections.
Another fifteen states, including Oregon, Virginia, New York and Nevada, are also deciding whether Trump can run for office.
In the complex American political and electoral system, where the states are in charge of organizing the presidential elections, each one has its own laws and rules, so similar demands can have a different outcome.
Due to these tensions between different states, pressure has been growing in recent days on the US Supreme Court to take a position and establish a position at the federal level.
In Maine, as in Colorado, the Republican primaries will be on March 5, a key date in the electoral calendar since it is the well-known ‘super tuesday’with fifteen states called to the polls and that could define that contest prior to the presidential elections in November.
On January 6, 2021, thousands of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol while lawmakers were in the process of certifying the election results that gave victory to the current president, Joe Biden.
Source: Gestion
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