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Sam Wolfe/Reuters
Former President Donald Trump attends a campaign event ahead of the Republican presidential primary in North Charleston, South Carolina on February 14th.
CNN
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In a surprising move, an Illinois judge removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s ballot based on the 14th Amendment’s so-called “insurrectionist ban.”
The decision will be put on hold, giving Trump a short appeal period.
Wednesday’s unexpected ruling comes as a similar anti-Trump challenge from Colorado is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, which is widely expected to reject Trump’s claims to be removed from office. There is.
Cook County Circuit Court Judge Tracy Porter called Colorado’s reasoning “persuasive,” relying heavily on an earlier decision by the Colorado Supreme Court.
“The court also recognizes the magnitude of this decision and its impact on future Illinois primary elections,” Porter wrote. “The Illinois State Board of Elections shall remove Mr. Donald J. Trump from the ballot for the March 19, 2024 general primary election or suppress any votes cast for him.”
A judge stripped Trump from Illinois ballots a month after an anti-Trump challenge was rejected by the Illinois State Board of Elections. In a unanimous bipartisan vote, the Election Commission dismissed the anti-Trump lawsuit on the grounds that it lacked the authority to review the matter.
Illinois is the third state to exclude Trump from voting, after Colorado and Maine. However, those decisions were put on hold until the Colorado case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Mr. Trump can appeal the judge’s decision in Illinois state court.
He has already fought off similar lawsuits in many other states.
The Illinois challenge was brought by a group of voters aligned with the legal advocacy group Free Speech For People, which previously sought to remove President Trump from ballots in Michigan, Minnesota and Oregon.
At a hearing in late January, Porter asked Trump’s lawyers about the difference between “insurrection” and “insurrection” and whether Trump first needs to be convicted before he can be removed from office. It approached.
“Is it important to understand why this group came together and what they were actually trying to do?” Porter said, referring to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. I asked the lawyer.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Pro-Donald Trump rioters rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021.
President Trump’s lawyer, Nicholas Nelson, described the events of January 6 as a “political insurrection,” likening it to an angry mob rather than a group with a specific set of legal objectives.
“This is about an act of government, and there is no indication that the mob had any plans,” Nelson said. “They were just angry.”
Illinois law requires candidates to prove they are “qualified” to hold the office they seek, and Trump did so when running in the state’s Republican primary. Porter asked another Trump lawyer, Adam Merrill, whether for Trump’s charges to be false, he would need to be previously convicted of sedition.
“If that had happened, it would have been much more difficult for us,” Merrill said. “We don’t have that here.”
Mr. Porter had previously rejected Mr. Trump’s request to suspend proceedings until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a similar case in Colorado that would have barred voting in that state.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Caitlin Polantz contributed to this report.
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