An Illinois judge declared Donald Trump ineligible on Wednesday because of his actions during the assault on the Capitol and ordered the withdrawal of ballots in his name during the Republican primary in that state.
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This decision, similar to those of the states of Maine and Colorado, comes as the Supreme Court with a conservative majority, the summit of the American judicial power, must determine whether the actions of Donald Trump during the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 make them ineligible.
The chances of the Supreme Court ruling against the former president are low, with judges wanting to avoid at all costs being open to suspicions of electoral interference.
But Illinois Judge Tracie Porter, a Democrat, said Wednesday that the former president must be removed from the ballots in the Illinois Republican primary, which is scheduled to take place March 19, “or have that the votes cast in his favor be deleted.”
“Today, a Democratic judge (…) in Illinois summarily dismissed the state’s election commission and contradicted previous decisions in dozens of other federal and state jurisdictions,” criticized the door Donald Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said he was appealing the decision.
The latter is based on the 14th amendment to the Constitution. It excludes from the highest public functions anyone who has engaged in acts of “rebellion” after having taken an oath to defend the Constitution. Adopted in 1868, the amendment then targeted supporters of the Southern Confederacy defeated during the Civil War (1861-1865).
Of the thirty states in which ineligibility appeals were filed against Donald Trump, two were successful in Colorado and Maine. Several states are nevertheless waiting for the Supreme Court to rule definitively.
