The decision by Maine to join other states in disqualifying Donald Trump from the ballot increases the urgency for the U.S. Supreme Court to promptly intervene. According to experts, this case may also determine whether states have the authority to enforce a power that Congress expressly granted to itself.
As Colorado’s all-Democrat Supreme Court ruled last week and Maine’s Democrat Secretary of State Shenna Bellows declared Thursday, much of the debate over whether Trump can be disqualified under the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution has centered on whether the former president’s conduct and speech on January 6, 2021, met the amendment’s definition of “engaging in insurrection or rebellion.”
However, due to the language in the final clause of the post-Civil War amendment, legal analysts assert that the high court might have a rather straightforward endeavor.
“The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article,” The amendment specifies, for further clarity, that a candidate convicted of insurrection could also be permitted to appear on a ballot by a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate.
“I think the Supreme Court will focus on the fact that there is no authority in the 14th Amendment for application by state courts. There is no application by courts at all,” Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said in a video he posted on the X social media platform.
Dershowitz told John Solomon’s Just the News separately that he expects Maine’s declaration and Colorado’s decision to both be overturned.
Mike Davis, a former attorney for the Senate Judiciary Committee and the originator of the Article III Project think tank, asserts that the 14th Amendment is not subject to state enforcement. “It must be done by Congress.”
He noted that after the 14th amendment, Congress enacted a law for criminal prosecution of insurrection, and he believes a candidate would have to be convicted under that law for the disqualification clause to apply.
The Colorado State Republican Party’s appeal of the state Supreme Court’s decision on Wednesday evening also relies on this interpretation of the amendment. It partially requested the nine justices to ascertain “whether Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment is self-executing to the extent of allowing states to remove candidates from the ballot in the absence of any Congressional action authorizing such process.”
Although legal ramifications continue to accumulate, the response to Maine’s ruling was prompt.
Republican Senate candidate in Arizona Kari Lake defended Trump, claiming that she believed voter suppression had occurred.
“Democrats fear they can’t beat President Donald J. Trump at the ballot box, so they’re trying to take him off the ballot altogether and deprive American citizens of their sacred right to choose their next President,” Lake wrote in a statement. “A politician unilaterally booting a presidential candidate off the ballot is voter suppression of the highest level.”
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy characterized the current situation as a “threat to democracy.”
“The system is hellbent on taking this man out, the Constitution be damned,” Ramaswamy wrote. “I stand by my prior pledge to *withdraw* from any state’s ballot that ultimately removes Trump from its ballot. I call on DeSantis, Christie, and Haley to do the same – or else they are tacitly endorsing this illegal and brazen election interference in the GOP primary. This cancer in American politics isn’t limited to the Democrats.”
For her part, and despite being viewed with suspicion by the greater MAGA contingent, Chairwoman of the Republican National Committee Ronna McDaniel stated that the organization is eager to assist in the courtroom challenge to the ruling.
“Democrat election interference, just like we saw in Colorado,” McDaniel wrote. “State officials do not get to decide who the American people cast their vote for. We look forward to helping fight this legal battle in the US Supreme Court.”
Ryan DeLarme is an American journalist navigating a labyrinth of political corruption, overreaching corporate influence, a burgeoning censorship-industrial complex, compromised media, and the planned destruction of our constitutional republic. He writes for Badlands Media and is also a Host and Founder at Vigilant News. Additionally, his writing has been featured in American Thinker, the Post-Liberal, Winter Watch, Underground Newswire, and Stillness in the Storm. He’s also writes for alt-media streaming platforms Dauntless Dialogue and Rise.tv. Ryan enjoys gardening, kung fu, creative writing and fighting to SAVE AMERICA
