Donald Trump sues after he was disqualified from Maine ballot, opening new front in insurrection fight

WASHINGTON − Former President Donald Trump sued Maine's secretary of state Tuesday for disqualifying him from the state's primary ballot because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, opening another legal front in the saga over whether voters in some states will be barred from selecting the Republican front-runner.

Election officials and courts in several states are considering whether Trump's actions on Jan. 6 disqualified him under a Reconstruction-era provision of the 14th Amendment known as the insurrection clause. Only two states − Maine and Colorado − have decided Trump should be removed from this year's primary ballots.

The decision from Colorado's top court has already been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In Maine, the decision was made by the secretary of state rather than by a court. Trump's first line of appeal is to file a lawsuit in state court challenging that secretary's decision, and that is what he did Tuesday.

Trump called the secretary of state a "biased decisionmaker" in the suit and said his disqualification was the "product of a process infect by bias and pervasive lack of due process."

At issue is a provision of the 14th Amendment that bars people from serving as president or a member of Congress if they took an oath as "an officer of the United States" and then "engaged in insurrection or rebellion." Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, announced she believes the provision applied to Trump.

Bellows put enforcement of her decision on hold pending resolution of the question in the courts.

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The evidence, she said, demonstrates that the Capitol riot "occurred at the behest of, and with the knowledge and support of, the outgoing President (Trump)." The Constitution, she wrote, "does not tolerate an assault on the foundations of our government."

Bellows denied that her decision was based on personal political views. She told CNN last week: "No secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access. ... But no presidential candidate has ever engaged in insurrection."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump sues Maine over disqualification from 2024 ballot