Utah Sen. Mike Lee says 14th Amendment doesn’t apply, Trump should stay on ballot

FILE - President Donald Trump stands with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, on Dec. 4, 2017, at the Utah State Capitol, after Trump traveled to Salt Lake City to announce plans to shrink two sprawling national monuments in Utah. Lee criticized Thursday the recent decision by Maine's secretary of state to bar Trump from the state's primary ballot | Photo by Rick Bowmer, The Associated Press, St. George News

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Sen. Mike Lee took issue with the recent decision by Maine’s secretary of state to bar former President Donald Trump from the state’s primary ballot, arguing that a provision of the 14th Amendment doesn’t apply to the president.

Maine is the second state to bar Trump from the ballot, after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled last week that Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack amounts to insurrection.

The full text of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which is the basis of the court’s decision, reads:

“No person shall be a senator or representative in Congress, or elector of president and vice president, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”

Read the full story here: KSL News.

Written by BRIDGER BEAL-CVETKO, KSL.com.

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