An unexpected court decision barred Donald Trump from voting this Wednesday for his role in the Republican insurrection at the Capitol in January 2021. Cook County Circuit Judge Tracie Porter agreed with the state's voters who argued that the former president should be disqualified in the Republican insurgent primary on March 19 and the presidential election on November 5, in which he is expected to face defeat Democrat Joe Biden is charged with violating the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution by inciting the violent attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters.
However, the judge delayed the ruling's entry into force until after the former president and Republican candidate's appeal was filed and a similar case in Colorado was resolved. The legality of the measure passed in Colorado will be decided by the US Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority during his term as president and which already heard arguments related to Trump's eligibility to vote on February 8th. Porter also points to a possible appeal by Trump's lawyers, as he did after the Colorado challenge. It didn't take his team a second to announce the resource. “This is an unconstitutional ruling that we will quickly appeal,” a spokesman for his campaign said this afternoon.
“The Illinois State Board of Elections will remove Donald J. Trump from the ballot for the March 19, 2024 general primary election or cause the votes cast in his favor to be suppressed,” the judge’s decision said. His decision comes a month after the Illinois State Board of Elections rejected a challenge to Trump's candidacy. In a unanimous, bipartisan vote, the election board dismissed the case, saying it had no jurisdiction over the matter.
Illinois is the third state, after Colorado and Maine, where Trump has been barred from voting under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. However, those decisions were put on hold pending the appeal of the Colorado case to the United States Supreme Court and Trump's own appeal in the previous two cases being decided.
Section 3 prohibits anyone from holding public office who has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States — as he himself did in the Bible when he became president in 2017 — and then “takes part in an insurrection or “participated in or provided assistance in a rebellion against it.” or comfort his enemies.” Trump's address to his supporters, which preceded the attack on the congressional headquarters, was based on unfounded allegations of voter fraud in 2020 with the aim of preventing the certification of Biden's election victory.
Trump gave an incendiary speech that day in which he urged his supporters to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell.” Afterwards, he held back for hours and, despite still being the country's acting president, did not respond to requests for intervention to stop their violence.
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The Supreme Court is currently considering Trump's challenge to his disqualification in Colorado. The Washington justices were skeptical of the decision during oral arguments in the case, expressing concern that states could take sweeping steps that could affect national elections. The Supreme Court's nine-member composition gives him an advantage: six conservatives – some of his own appointments – compared to three liberals, so he is expected to overwhelmingly reject the arguments calling for his disqualification.
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