dtucker300 Loc: Vista, CA

Maine Bumping Trump? Hardly
Posted on Tuesday, January 2, 2024
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by AMAC, Robert B. Charles
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Shenna Bellows is suddenly famous, a registered Democrat, non-lawyer, former ACLU activist selected by Maine’s Democrat legislature to be Secretary of State. Within her purview is candidate eligibility. She just ruled Maine’s 1,039,517 registered v**ers cannot v**e for Republican p**********l candidate Donald Trump. Does that end the discussion? Hardly.

Based on a half-day hearing, “u-tube” videos, and a law professor’s brief, she finds Trump “not qualified” to be a candidate, but an “i**********nist” barred by Section 3, 14th Amendment.

Where does one start? This pretense to “legal authority” is a bare-knuckled attempt to block an opposing p**********l contender from b****t status. It is a farce, makes a mockery of the democratic process and fair, impartial administration of e******ns under Maine’s Title 21-A.

The sheer political t***sparency, venting of spleen, personal animus toward Trump by this officer should disqualify her from running the State’s 2024 e******ns, if not her post. She mocks the law.

Any lawyer in her inner circle – including the Governor, Attorney General, and state legislators could have told her this will look like a cheap trick, no legal chance of holding up, and undermines trust in Maine’s e*******l process, fair play, things Mainers expect of their officials.

If any tried, they failed, a mark against them and this self-absorbed state officer. In after-the-fact interviews, she virtually beams, is positively giddy, seems to bask in her newfound fame.

As someone who grew up in Maine, lives here now, has family and friends all over the state, knows the value of trust and fairness, spent time with oldline Republicans and Democrats, Margaret Chase Smith, Ed Muskie, Bill Cohen, Susan Collins, this makes me look at my boots.

Here are the arguments against this anti-democratic move, which any thoughtful Democrat or Republican – if Ms. Bellows speaks with Republicans – might have brought to her attention.

First, even if you h**e Donald Trump – and he has created an A-frame of sentiment – he is entitled to all the rights of citizenship, due process, equal protection, confronting his accusers, and more deference as a leading challenger to Ms. Bellow’s obvious favorite, Mr. Biden.

What does that mean? It means no state ruling – particularly on p**********l eligibility – can proceed without a dispositive ruling on whether Mr. Trump’s speech on J****** 6th was part of an “i**********n.” That determination lies not at the state level, but with the US Supreme Court.

Moreover, this preemptive gut punch to democracy imagines the rest of the 14th Amendment, its history and Section 1, endowing citizens with “rights and immunities,” is somehow irrelevant.

They are not irrelevant. Historically, Section 3 – which mentions “i**********n” – was specifically inserted to prevent Confederates who k**led 620,000 Americans in the Civil War from running after a pardon. It had specific origin and meaning, was never a meant as a partisan sword.

To that point, most legal scholars believe Trump’s speech on J****** 6th was, if provocative, hardly an “i**********n.” It is protected “political speech” under 1st Amendment caselaw.

If that speech is viewed as “i**********n,” political speech is dead. That cannot be.

In short, for one state partisan to conclude she will “say what the law is,” decide who cannot run for president, put on Supreme Court robes, is comic, arrogant, impertinent, and ignorant.

What this ruling betrays is venality and partisan opportunism, what happens when a state labors under one-party rule, is dominated. Bluntly, she disrespects both the judiciary and democracy.

In Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Laos, half the dark globe, things like this do happen. F**r e******ns are thrown by blocking candidates. As Assistant Secretary of State to Colin Powell, I saw it happen often, but never here; preempting democracy does not work here.

What else makes this cringe-worthy, partisan nonsense? For starters, Maine’s e******n laws do not envision – nor does legislative history – a Secretary of State taking it on herself to bump candidates, except for failure to get sufficient signatures, inventing reasons to call the shots.

Imagine if that were true, if state appointees or judges could shape reasons to remove candidates from e******ns, forcing long legal battles to restore a candidacy. Our republic would end.

You would have all manner of partisan claims for candidate disqualification, say dementia or stroke, mental or physical fitness, lies and unproven crimes. That was never what our founders – or the 14th Amendment’s drafters – envisioned. Never.

Now add a few more facts. Last month, congressional investigators found the J****** 6th investigating committee – run by Democrats – hid and destroyed films, exculpatory evidence.

During a court trial, so-called Brady or Jenks evidence, film, documents, photos that help defendants must be produced. We now know such evidence existed and was destroyed. A parallel case, one equally important for J****** 6th culpability, is also at the High Court.

Finally, we know – just common sense – if this kind of tomfoolery, a single state official bouncing who she dislikes, lots of press, were allowed, f**r e******ns end. We may not like those who qualify to run, those who one party selects, but democracy is like that – about v****g, not preemptive strikes. That, well, that is just hot air in the bellows.

Kevyn

Read the document she provided that shows how she diligently followed the constitution of Maine and the United States in coming to her decision.

Liberty Tree

BS, it will never stand up under judicial review. She followed nothing but her h**e for Trump.

dtucker300 Loc: Vista, CA

An unelected person makes a unilateral decision that ignores the e*****rate and the will of the people does not follow the Constitution of the United States. Totalitarians such as yourself are the most dangerous kind of people in this country. How about we let the v**ers decide?

Bruce123

The leadership in the democrat party has publicly said dozens of times that they will do wh**ever it takes to get rid of Donald Trump. The powers that be have made good on this promise.
They have lied,c***ted and stole their way through his term as president and there after.
The democrats have created a atmosphere of contention and chaos seldom seen in politics. Literally they have poisoned the fruit bowl of e******ns in our country.
WEATHER HE WINS OR LOSES there will be nothing but catastrophic animosity left.
A large majority of v**ers have abandoned rational thinking and can be easily swayed to v**e for short term gains or benefits that favor their personal situation.
In conclusion…..4 things could happen.
1- A severe economic downturn
2- A tremendous loss of freedom across the board.
3- Decision making in the government becomes so incompetent that they literally crash everything.
4- The government will start a global war and all bets are off and it’s everyone for themselves.

BIRDMAN

🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪

Kevyn

Did you read the documents?

dtucker300 Loc: Vista, CA

Have you ever read the Constitution? Show us where she diligently followed the Constitution of the U.S.

Former AG Barr blasts 'foolish' efforts to remove Trump from primary b****ts
"As a legal matter, states do not have the power to enforce the disqualification provision of the Fourteenth Amendment by using their own ad hoc procedures to find that an individual has engaged in an i**********n," he wrote.


By Ben Whedon
Published: January 2, 2024 8:02pm

Former Attorney General Bill Barr on Tuesday called on the Supreme Court to shut down efforts to remove former President Donald Trump from the 2024 b****t, calling such endeavors "foolish" and "politically counterproductive."

The Colorado Supreme Court in December determined that Trump's role in the J*** 6, 2021, Capitol r**t amounted to "engaging in i**********n" and thus disqualified Trump from reclaiming the presidency under the 14th Amendment. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows subsequently concluded that Trump was ineligible along a similar line of reasoning.

In an op-ed for The Free Press, Barr insisted that such conclusions lacked constitutional legitimacy and that the 14th Amendment provided minimal guidance as to determining Trump's eligibility, given he has not been convicted for inciting an i**********n.

"As a legal matter, states do not have the power to enforce the disqualification provision of the Fourteenth Amendment by using their own ad hoc procedures to find that an individual has engaged in an i**********n," he wrote. "If the Justice Department, in pursuing its criminal case, had found that Trump had engaged in i**********n, it would be another story. But it has not."

"Obviously, there has to be a fair fact-finding procedure before someone can be branded an i**********nist. But what should that process be? The Fourteenth Amendment is silent on this," he went on, further noting that the amendment provided Congress the authority to enforce it through legislation and that the legislature had passed such measures.

"The point is that in present-day America, under existing law, the only way to disqualify someone under Section Three is through criminal prosecution under Section 2383. The federal government, which has painstakingly examined the events of J****** 6, has not charged President Trump with i**********n or even incitement," Barr added.

martsiva

No she didn`t!! Only Congress has the authority to disqualify a candidate!! Is she a Congress person??

martsiva

Did you read the 14th amendment??

F.D.R.

Diligent and Democrat are not compatible.

dtucker300 Loc: Vista, CA

Again, Kevyn proves to everyone on OPP that he is the dimmest bulb on the tree. He has no shame.

microphor Loc: Home is TN

She is acting as prosecutor, judge and juror, all by her lonesome self. ONE person making a decision for 2 million. If I were in Maine, I'd be on the war path. It would be different if he had a trial and found guilty by peers or admitted guilt. This is her "interpretation".

Ronald Hatt Loc: Lansing, Mich

Maine...Is suffering from a terminal case of "putrid politicians, & badly demented at that! *As is most all of today's

demoncrats, & their gross & unmitigated brain damaged i***t supporters! [ Brain dead, & terminal!]