An Illinois state judge on Wednesday barred Donald Trump from appearing on the Illinois’ Republican presidential primary ballot because of his role in the attack at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but she delayed her ruling from taking effect in light of an expected appeal by the former U.S president.
Please read the article, it’s for both the primary and general.
Still doesn’t matter, Illinois is pretty solidly blue so a Republican wouldn’t win those electoral votes in the general either way
It kind of does, in that when states see something blatantly unconstitutional they shouldn’t wait for the Supreme Court to say it. Start the procedure and than wait if the Court says it needs to review it, sure.
Ugh…okay…
First I’ll say I can’t stand trump and I absolutely believe he participated in insurrection and as such should be barred from holding federal office.
*With that being said…*the fact remains that he’s not yet been legally convicted/proven of having done so.
I believe it, you believe it, lots of people believe it, and it may well be fact…but there’s been no legal decision that says he participated in an insurrection.
Without that legal ruling…and I can’t believe I’m saying this…I don’t think that states should be able to strike him from national elections based on a federal level law.
It’s less a matter of how I feel about the actual subject and much more because of the legal precedent and implications. Basically, without a legal conviction here, these states are saying, “We (a nebulous definition here that could be as collective as the personally held opinions of a single judge) feel that this person did something so against the best interests of the country that it amounts to insurrection, therefore we’re removing that person from our ballots.”
And while I agree with them in this specific case, it’s not difficult to imagine that, with a precedent like this, you get purple states with a GOP judge, state supreme court, governor, etc. that decide that the Dem candidate in a future election has acted so against their view of the best interests of the nation that they decide it amounts to insurrection and therefore that candidate will be removed from their ballot.
At that point, every single election will be about attempts to remove candidates from ballots in the courts, cheapening and perverting the intentions of 14-3.
To prevent that, IMHO, it needs to be up to the federal level of courts to make such a decision, to say for certain whether a person has violated 14-3, at which point that ruling decides their appearance on a ballot automatically.
Yes, it’s unfortunate because in this case a ruling like that from a federal court is unlikely (and if it comes down, it’s unlikely to withstand SCOTUS and/or get a horribly muddying ruling like “yes he did insurrection but no, we aren’t going to enforce 14-3”) but taking the long view of rule of law and judicial precedent, I just feel that states deciding this matter without trial or conviction is opening Pandora’s box.
Cmon now, there’s a difference between “against their view” and “instigated and participated in an insurrection.”
This is like arguing that we can’t punish a murderer with jail time because people will start trying to punish people they disagree with, with jail time.