CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said Thursday on “Anderson Cooper 360” that Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ decision to bar former President Donald Trump from the ballot was based on “YouTube clips, news reports” and “things that would never pass the bar in normal court.”
Honig replied, “So, clearly Section 3 of the 14th Amendment says, engage in insurrection, you’re out. We all have that. The complicated part, and where we are going to see this play out in the courts, is who gets to decide and by what process.”
He continued, “Let me sort of lay out the arguments both sides. And by the way, it’s worth saying, we’re all theorizing here. We’re in legally unknown territory. The argument against is, first of all, the 14th Amendment, Section 5 says Congress has the authority to pass laws to implement this. They did, they passed the criminal law, and the argument is that means Congress, not the states. But perhaps, and this is the argument that the Maine secretary of state and Colorado made, the states can do it too. If that’s true, then question two is, were the processes, were the hearings fair? Did they comport with due process?”
Honig added, “And I think there’s a question there with regard to what Maine did, because if you look at the hearing, and she details of the this in the ruling, they heard from one fact witness, a law professor. She based her ruling on a lot of documents, but also YouTube clips, news reports, things that would never pass the bar in normal court.”
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