Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows is asking the Maine Supreme Judicial Court to review her decision to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the state’s Republican primary ballot.

On Wednesday, Kennebec County Superior Court Judge Michaela Murphy remanded Bellows’ decision to bar Trump back to the secretary of state’s office, saying the state ruling should be delayed until the U.S. Supreme Court takes up a similar case involving Colorado.

Bellows filed a notice of appeal Friday, saying she wants Maine’s high court to take up the case without delay. The filing means the state’s highest court will issue some form of ruling before the U.S. Supreme Court issues its decision.

State law covering ballot eligibility disputes says the Maine Supreme Judicial Court “shall immediately consider the case” and “issue its decision within 14 days of the date of the decision of the Superior Court.” The U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments on Feb. 8.

Bellows ruled that Trump’s actions prior to an angry mob’s attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, disqualify him from the March 5 primary ballot under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment states that a person may not hold office “if they have engaged in insurrection.”

Trump has appealed that decision.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering a similar case out of Colorado, where Trump has also been removed from state primary ballots. That decision would likely also apply to Maine.

Murphy’s ruling Wednesday ordered Bellows to wait for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Colorado case, and then issue a new ruling if necessary. But the timeline is tight. Maine Republican primary voters can start voting absentee three days before the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments.

Bellows wants the state’s high court to move forward in the meantime.

“Like many Americans, I welcome a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in the Colorado case that provides guidance as to the important 14th Amendment questions in this case,” Bellows said in a prepared statement.

“In the interim, Maine law provides the opportunity to seek review from the Maine Supreme Judicial Court – which I requested today,” she said. “I know both the constitutional and state authority questions are of grave concern to many. This appeal ensures that Maine’s highest court has the opportunity to weigh in now, before ballots are counted, promoting trust in our free, safe and secure elections.”

Detailed legal briefs in support of Bellows’ appeal are expected to be filed with Maine’s high court next week.

Dmitry Bam, vice dean/provost at the University of Maine School of Law, said he wouldn’t be surprised if the Maine Supreme Judicial Court also waits until the U.S. Supreme Court makes a decision, or makes a ruling deferring to the nation’s highest court.

“When the U.S. Supreme Court decides the case, that will likely decide the Maine case as well,” Bam said. He said he expects the federal high court to issue a speedy decision, given that there’s already a date set for oral arguments and states around the country are already holding primary elections.

If the Maine supreme court were to proceed with its case at the same time, it would require a lot of effort by all parties on a case that is likely to be decided by the federal high court anyway, he said.

In motions filed before Murphy’s ruling that argue against a delay, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey, acting on Bellows’ behalf, said the timing of the Maine primary election and court decisions “places the state in a precarious position. Mere days before a presidential primary election – assuming the U.S. Supreme Court issues an extraordinarily quick decision after oral argument on Feb. 8, 2024 – there would be an unresolved challenge to the validity of Mr. Trump’s primary petition.”

Frey’s filing noted that without a quick decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, many Maine residents would be voting absentee before the court cases are resolved.

But Murphy, in her ruling Wednesday, argued that waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court was the best way to avoid confusion among voters.

“A remand to (Bellows) pending a decision by the Supreme Court on these unprecedented issues will promote consistency and avoid voter confusion in the weeks before the primary election,” Murphy wrote.

Absentee voting for the March 5 primary starts Feb. 5, three days before the federal high court hears oral arguments.

Trump is facing felony indictments charging him with trying to overturn the 2020 election, in part by inciting his followers to interfere in the certification of the presidential election. President Biden defeated Trump in November 2020 and became president on Jan. 20, 2021.

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