Donald Trump blocked from Maine presidential ballot in 2024 | BBC News

Donald Trump blocked from Maine presidential ballot in 2024 | BBC News

Donald Trump’s 2024 election campaign says it will file a legal challenge to a ruling by the state of Maine to prevent him from contesting the Republican primary there Maine is the second state to announce such a move after Colorado with officials in both citing a clause in the Constitution which bans those who

Have engaged in Insurrection from taking political office the US Supreme Court is likely to make the ultimate decision as to whether he can run for president live to Thomas GIF now who is director of the center on us politics at University College London uh good to see you can

You explain to us what exactly this constitutional Insurrection Clause is well it’s great to be with you Lucy as always essentially uh section three of um says that uh individuals who have engaged in Insurrection or Rebellion are ineligible for uh running for a president um and essentially you know

Defenders of Donald Trump are going to say that this ruling um by the the main secretary of state is unconstitutional for a few reasons one is that the provision uh requires uh that Congress uh do this and not individual states uh second that the insurrectionist Clause applies explicitly to officers of the

United States and that the president arguably doesn’t qualify under that criteria and then third the Constitution already sets out Provisions for executive impeachment under Article 2 section4 um so the claim is that the 14th amendment was never designed um to substitute for that accountability mechanism Thomas there’s obviously some

Urgency now with it appearing before The Supreme Court we could see other states following suit as well how does that work in terms of the timing well practically the Supreme Court has no choice it has to take up uh this case because the worst possible outcome would

Be to have a scattershot process where Trump is ordered off the ballot in some states allowed to stay on it in others and all this confusion occurs against the back backdrop of the primaries you know if it’s not ruled on it could also create a layer of other complications

State Republican parties could say that they’re going to circumvent these rulings by shifting from primaries to caucuses that would require a waiver from the Republican National Committee but it could also trigger lawsuits by state governments to prevent that change which could be appealed so there’s a real urgency uh to get this resolved

Which is why the Supreme Court will expedite its review my best guess is that we’ll probably get an answer at the latest by super Tuesday which is March 5th that’s when Colorado and 15 or other so States are planning to hold their primaries and Thomas do you find it an

Interesting one for the Supreme Court because you’ve got Trump appointees there but you’ve also got judges who are originalists I mean they literally do believe in the Constitution so this presents a bit of a challenge for them well it does I mean you could just look

At the numbers and say uh six to three conservative uh to Liberal and three of those justices were appointed by Donald Trump so by default essentially he has uh the advantage and I think that he does uh practically um you know you can get into these text arguments about what

The Constitution uh says what it it means I do think that there are legitimate claims to be made on either side I I think if you want to look at one provision it is uh this provision in uh the 14th amendment that says um that the Congress shall have power to enforce

By appropriate legislation the provisions of this article and what we saw in Colorado what we saw in Maine is a state supreme court and a secretary of state exercising this discretion that’s not um Congress and so I think that’s why ultimately an originalist interpretation is going to come down on

The side of Donald Trump but there’s still uncertainty and you never know as always good to see you Thomas Thanks so much you can find much more on the US presidential election and a special section of our website it’s called a really simple guide and you’ll find everything you need to understand how

The process works from getting chosen as a candidate to the debates and what it takes to win so do log on and take a

Donald Trump has now been disqualified from running as a presidential candidate in two states, Colorado and Maine.

The former president is the clear frontrunner to be the Republican nominee in November 2024 to challenge Joe Biden for the White House.

But the top election official in Maine ruled Trump cannot run for president next year in the state because of his actions leading up to the Capitol riot.

Colorado’s highest court issued a similar, unprecedented, ruling just days earlier.

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