An Illinois judge barred former President Donald Trump from the state’s Republican presidential primary ballot this week, following similar actions in Maine and Colorado. Cook County Circuit Judge Tracie Porter (D) made the decision pending a legal appeal Tuesday, citing his actions after the 2020 election for the removal of ballot access.
“This Court shares the Colorado Supreme Court’s sentiments that did not reach its conclusion lightly,” the judge wrote.
Porter wrote that she understood the “magnitude of this decision and its impact on the upcoming Illinois elections.”
She wrote that her decision was based on Trump’s perceived failure to “meet the Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment’s disqualification provision based on engaging in insurrection on January 6, 2021, and his name should be removed from the ballot.”
Porter’s decision came after the Illinois State Board of Elections rejected earlier efforts to have Trump’s name removed from the ballot due to the Jan. 6, 2021 protest at the Capitol.
“A partisan Democrat Judge in Cook County just issued a blatantly unconstitutional ruling kicking Trump off the ballot in Illinois,” wrote former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D). “I have firsthand experience with courts in Illinois playing politics, perverting justice, & denying the people their choices in elections.”
A partisan Democrat Judge in Cook County just issued a blatantly unconstitutional ruling kicking Trump off the ballot in Illinois. I have firsthand experience with courts in Illinois playing politics, perverting justice, & denying the people their choices in elections.
— Rod Blagojevich (@realBlagojevich) February 29, 2024
The Illinois decision closely tracks with the decision of the Colorado Supreme Court and Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D), citing a clause in the 14th Amendment that bars a person from holding certain federal offices if they have engaged in “insurrection.”
The Colorado case is currently before the Supreme Court, which is likely to make a decision regarding whether or not Trump’s name can appear on Colorado’s ballots or voting slips nationwide.
The Illinois decision also follows a series of lawsuits arguing that Trump is ineligible for the ballot. So far, many of the arguments have been rejected, including by the Minnesota Supreme Court.
The decision could affect the upcoming Illinois Republican primary, which is set for March 19.
