Cook County judge kicks Trump off Illinois ballot — but puts her own order on hold

A Cook County judge Wednesday ordered the state election board to remove former President Donald Trump from Illinois’ March 19 primary ballot but put her order on hold until Friday in anticipation of a likely appeal.

Judge Tracie Porter’s decision comes amid national debate over whether Trump is disqualified from the presidency because of his actions related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and whether that attack amounted to an insurrection.

The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to rule on the controversy soon — and appeared skeptical of the arguments to kick Trump off Colorado’s ballot. The clock is ticking on the nation’s high court given that Colorado’s primary election is Tuesday.

Questions about whether a major-party’s front-runner may appear on a ballot are not insignificant, but they seem ultimately inconsequential here in Illinois considering Trump received just 39% and 41% of the vote in the 2016 and 2020 general elections, respectively.

Meanwhile, Trump delegates on the March 19 ballot have been certified and would still be free to vote for Trump at the Republican National Convention no matter how the court battle here plays out.

Attorneys for five voters objecting to Trump’s candidacy have insisted the Illinois Supreme Court’s ruling will not completely resolve their case. Rather, they expect it will eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

Also objecting to Trump’s candidacy is the national voting rights group Free Speech for People.

The State Board of Elections voted unanimously last month to reject the same bid to block Trump from Illinois’ ballot under the 14th Amendment.

It bars from “any office, civil or military, under the United States” anyone who previously took an oath as an “officer of the United States” to support the Constitution but then engaged in “insurrection or rebellion.”

Trump’s lawyers have told the U.S. Supreme Court the amendment doesn’t apply because the president is not an “officer of the United States” under the Constitution and because he did not engage in “anything that qualifies as ‘insurrection.’”

In rejecting the challenge to Trump’s candidacy, the state board found in part that Trump’s declaration that he was qualified for the presidency was not “knowingly false.”

During more than three hours of arguments at the Daley Center on Feb. 16, attorneys for the objecting voters called that an “impossible” and “unworkable” standard to apply going forward.

Meanwhile, questions also came up as to whether the Jan. 6 riot rose to the level of an insurrection. Trump’s lawyers argued it did not. For a riot to qualify, they said, the mob must intend to supplant existing law with its own.

Either way, Trump’s lawyers have said he did not “engage” in those events.

They also did not defend the mob’s actions on Jan. 6 in their arguments at the Daley Center. Rather, Trump lawyer Adam Merrill called the events of that day “deplorable” and “shameful.” He said there was “clearly evidence of crimes and violence.”

“Some of them very serious,” Merrill said. “And repugnant.”

Dave McKinney covers Illinois politics for WBEZ. Jon Seidel writes about federal courts and legal affairs for the Chicago Sun-Times.