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It’s a question being asked in several states preparing to hold
primary elections in the coming months and one that many believe
must ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, which will
hear arguments Feb. 8 in a similar challenge to Trump’s
candidacy in Colorado.
“We have so many different states taking their own
interpretations. Colorado has said he can't be on the ballot,
for example,” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill, said Monday at an
unrelated news conference in Springfield. “I think this has to
be decided by the Supreme Court.”
The challenge to Trump is based on the so-called
“insurrectionist ban” contained in Section 3 of the 14th
Amendment. Adopted in the aftermath of the Civil War, it says
that public officials who swear an oath to protect the
Constitution and then take part in an insurrection or rebellion
against the United States are disqualified from holding public
office again.
The challenges allege that Trump’s actions surrounding the Jan.
6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol – when thousands of
protesters stormed the building in an effort to prevent Congress
from certifying the election of Joe Biden – amounted to an
“insurrection” within the meaning of the 14th amendment.
After a lengthy hearing in Chicago on Friday, retired Republican
state Judge Clark Erickson, serving as a hearing officer for the
Board of Elections, issued a report over the weekend advising
the Board of Elections to dismiss the challenge on the grounds
that the board only has authority to decide cases based on the
Illinois Election Code, not the U.S. Constitution.
But if the board chooses not to dismiss the challenge, Erickson
recommended that Trump be disqualified, saying the
“preponderance of evidence” proves that “President Trump engaged
in insurrection, within the meaning of Section 3 of the
Fourteenth Amendment, and should have his name removed from the
March, 2024 primary ballot in Illinois.”
Caryn Lederer, an attorney for the group challenging Trump, said
in an interview Monday that the Board of Elections does not have
the option of sidestepping the controversy while waiting for the
Supreme Court to rule because state law requires the board to
resolve election objections “expeditiously.”
“But my prediction is that their decision will be appealed,
either by the objectors or by candidate Trump,” she said.
Capitol News Illinois is
a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government.
It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV
stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press
Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with
major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation
and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.
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