A Cook County judge said Friday that she hopes to issue a ruling next week on whether former President Donald Trump should be disqualified from the presidential ballot in Illinois on 14th Amendment grounds, per reports.
The five voters and the activist group, Free Speech for People, brought the challenge on the premise that the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach was an “insurrection” and that President Trump engaged in it.
The petitioners relied heavily on the Democrat-controlled January 6 Select Committee report to argue that the events of that day amounted to an insurrection, which President Trump supposedly engaged in when he gave an impassioned speech on Jan. 6, calling on his supporters to protest against what he said was a stolen election.
‘Peacefully and Patriotically’
President Trump said in his Jan. 6 speech that protesters should “peacefully and patriotically” make their voices heard, though some have seized on a portion of his remarks where he said “we fight like hell” and “if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore” as a call for violence.
The former president has, on numerous occasions, denied calling for violent protests while insisting he meant his remarks about fighting like hell metaphorically.
The argument for disqualifying President Trump from the ballot rests on an interpretation of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits individuals who participated in “rebellions” or “insurrections” from holding office unless they had a two-thirds vote of exemption from Congress.
Voters in other states have used similar reasoning to try disqualifying President Trump on 14th Amendment grounds.
Attorneys for the five Illinois voters and Free Speech for People made the same “insurrection” argument once again in court on Friday, while also arguing that the Illinois election board improperly interpreted the law in making its decision, per the Courthouse News Service.
The Illinois State Board of Elections, which is made up of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans, said in its Jan. 31 decision that it didn’t have the authority to analyze constitutional issues and so ruled to keep President Trump on the ballot.
Board member Jack Vrett said that ruling otherwise could have triggered a torrent of lawsuits, even ones unrelated to the matter at hand.
“If we exceeded our authority ... and looked at the underlying of conduct ... I think what we would see would be an opening of floodgates of litigation,” he said. Every school board candidate could challenge their rivals over alleged criminal conduct and require election boards to investigate, he said.
Board member Catherine McCrory, a Republican, was the only other member to make a statement. She said that “there’s no doubt in my mind” that President Trump engaged in “insurrection” but added that she did not think the board had the jurisdiction to rule on such an issue.
A decision next week would come less than a month ahead of the Illinois primary on March 19.
In the background is a pending case before the U.S. Supreme Court, which is weighing a challenge to a Colorado Supreme Court decision to block President Trump from the ballot on 14th Amendment grounds.
Judge Porter said she plans to issue her ruling on Thursday or Friday of next week, per the Chicago Sun-Times.
