On Wednesday, Judge Tracie Porter of Cook County, Ill., issued an order stating that the State Board of Elections “shall remove Donald J. Trump from the ballot for the General Primary Election on March 19, 2024, or cause any votes cast for him to be suppressed.”
Last year, left-wing groups launched a nationwide effort to exclude Trump from primary ballots, citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. While most states have rejected these attempts, in December, the Colorado Supreme Court declared Trump ineligible. Maine's Secretary of State eventually followed suit. Last month, the Illinois State Board of Elections ruled it lacked the authority to remove Trump from the ballot over alleged violations of the 14th Amendment. Judge Porter's ruling unilaterally overturned their ruling.
Porter's order has been stayed, and Trump has until Friday to appeal, which the Trump campaign has already announced it intends to do.
"The Soros-funded Democrat front-groups continue to attempt to interfere in the election and deny President Trump his rightful place on the ballot," Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement received by PJ Media. "Today, 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. In the meantime, President Trump remains on the Illinois ballot, is dominating the polls, and will Make America Great Again!"
Porter acknowledged in her ruling that she was aware that her “decision could not be the ultimate outcome,” given that the Supreme Court has already heard oral arguments on this issue and is expected to rule on it soon. It is widely agreed that the Supreme Court would overturn the Colorado State Supreme Court and settle the issue, which makes Porter's actions not only destined to fail but also a transparent attempt to pander to the left for some self-serving purpose.
Even justices from the leftist wing of the court appeared skeptical of the decision to remove Trump from the ballot, including Joe Biden's nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson.
"The argument is now over. The disqualification advocates may have expected a cold reception, but this was perfectly glacial. Notably, some of the toughest and most skeptical questions came from the left of the Court," George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley said in a post on X/Twitter. "Most notable were the questions from Justice Jackson who seemed to push the idea that the president may not have been intended to be one of those covered by the provision."
There were quite a few concerns that justices posed that others echoed as well. For example, Chief Justice John Roberts warned that when one state unilaterally decides a candidate is ineligible, other states may respond with retaliatory action.
"I would expect that a good number of states will say, 'Whoever the Democratic candidate is, you’re off the ballot,'" Roberts predicted. Indeed, after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Trump ineligible to be on the state ballot, Republicans in various states responded by promising efforts to boot Joe Biden from their own state ballots.
At least eight of the court's nine members will likely vote in Trump's favor in the case, with the one potential holdout being Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
"If you were to take a bet, you would say eight of the justices seemed to be prepared to rule against Colorado," Turley predicted during an appearance on Fox News. "Sotomayor is the outlier in terms of the issues. It's clear again they are not looking at arguing whether this was an insurrection, even though some of the justices were concerned about the lack of due process afforded to the president."
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