Maine bars Trump from ballot as US Supreme Court weighs state authority to block former president

Maine has now joined Colorado in deciding that former president Donald Trump is ineligible to be on the ballot next year Maine's Secretary of State made that announcement yesterday the unprecedented decisions will almost surely head to the Supreme Court for a final ruling ABC's Rachel bade has more for the second time this month a US state booting former president Donald Trump from the ballot citing the Constitution's Insurrection Clause attorneys representing a republican a Democrat and an independent cited the civil War era provision as justification for kicking Mr Trump off the ballot We Believe former president Trump on January 6 engaged in Insurrection against the Constitution of the United States and under section three of the 14th amendment that disqualifies him from holding the office of the presidency and president Trump's legal team citing other secretaries of State who passed on removing him from the ballot all of whom have been asked to engage in this type of in in a disqualification and every administrative official has has declined to do that for good reason ultimately main Secretary of State ruled the former president ineligible when we looked at the weight of evidence it became clear uh that January 6 was an attack not only on the capital on government officials uh but also an attack on the rule of law ABC News contributor John kco a former Republican congressman who bucked his own party to impeach Trump following January 6th disagreed with the seem right it seems downright on American quite frankly I'm not a big fan of the of President Trump the decision follows a similar ruling in Colorado which has been stayed until the US Supreme Court makes the final call Trump spokesman Steven Chong blasting the decision saying we are witnessing in real time the attempted theft of an election and personally attacking the main Secretary of State a Democrat as a leftist overnight California's Secretary of State announced that Trump would remain on the ballot despite calls from the lieutenant governor to remove him it all underscores The Divide even in the Democratic party over this controversial issue Rachel bade ABC News Washington