Maine Judge Delays Decision on Donald Trump's Presence on Ballot, Awaiting Supreme Court Ruling

On Wednesday, Maine Judge Michaela Murphy placed on hold a decision regarding former President Donald Trump's presence on the Maine primary ballot. The decision will now be delayed until the Supreme Court rules on a similar case in Colorado.

Trump’s lawyers appealed in state court when Secretary of State Shenna Bellows removed the Republican front-runner from the presidential primary ballot but then asked the judge to pause proceedings to allow the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on the Colorado case, which could render the lawsuit moot.
Superior Court Judge Michaela Murphy concluded she lacked authority to stay the judicial proceedings but she wrote that she did have authority to send the case back to the secretary of state with instructions to await the outcome of the U.S. Supreme Court case before withdrawing, modifying or upholding her original decision.
In her decision, the judge said that the issues raised in the Maine case mirror the issues raised in the Colorado case before the U.S. Supreme Court. She wrote that her decision “minimizes any potentially destabilizing effect of inconsistent decisions and will promote greater predictability in the weeks ahead of the primary election.”

Colorado already appears to be backing down on the issue.

The issue in Maine, as in Colorado, is that the case hinges on the 14th Amendment's "insurrection" clause and the question of President Trump's involvement in the January 6th protests.

It's important to note that former President Trump has neither been indicted nor convicted of insurrection under 18 USC 2383: Rebellion or insurrection. One would assume that due process should apply to any such action as removing a candidate from the ballot, primary or otherwise; last anyone knew, due process and presumption of innocence were still legal principles in the United States. It's difficult to see how a candidate could be judged as ineligible without an indictment or a conviction, much less based on a simple assertion by a state's Secretary of State or a state court.

Trump will remain, for now, on the Maine primary ballot, just as he remains on the primary ballot for Colorado.

Trump, who won the Iowa caucuses on Monday, remains on the Maine ballot for the March 5 primary for now, given a Saturday deadline for sending overseas ballots. If the U.S. Supreme Court allows Trump to be kept off the ballot, then Bellows would have to notify local election officials that votes cast for him would not be counted.
Maine has just four electoral votes, but it’s one of two states to split them. Trump earned one of Maine’s electors when he was elected in 2016 and again in 2020 when he lost reelection.

Donald Trump, on Monday, handily won the Iowa caucuses, the first primary season decision of the 2024 presidential election cycle. Reactions from the legacy media were, as usual, predictable.

The United States Supreme Court will hear arguments on the Colorado primary ballot case on February 8th. RedState will bring you updates on the story as they occur.