An Illinois judge has removed former President Donald Trump from the state's ballot, citing the 14th Amendment's "insurrectionist ban," according to reports by CNN.
Last month, Illinois voters joined three other states in seeking to exclude the former president from the primary ballots due to his role in the Capitol insurrection. Working with a liberal advocacy group, voters filed challenges alleging Trump's lack of remorse for the events of Jan. 6, 2021. The challenge was then dismissed by the Illinois State Board of Elections, citing jurisdictional limitations.
On Wednesday, just weeks before the Illinois primary on March 19, Cook County Circuit Judge Tracie Porter stripped Trump from the ballot, but the decision is on hold, allowing Trump a brief window to appeal, according to CNN.
The same challenge from Colorado to remove Trump from the ballot is now pending in the Supreme Court, which put Maine's similar challenge on pause, and it's expected that the court will reject arguments that Trump is ineligible for office.
The amendment in question, which was ratified three years after the end of the Civil War, says:
"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."
Trump has the option to appeal the judge's decision in Illinois state courts, which his campaign has indicated he will do.
In a statement following the ruling, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said "an activist Democrat judge in Illinois summarily overruled the state’s board of elections and contradicted earlier decisions from dozens of other state and federal jurisdictions. This is an unconstitutional ruling that we will quickly appeal."
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Legal hurdles loom for Trump as over a dozen challenges under the 14th Amendment aim to bar him from the 2024 race.
