Illinois Becomes the Third State to Remove Trump From Primary Ballot

Sarah Arnold reporting for Townhall 

Illinois becomes the third state to remove former President Trump from its state ballot, citing the 14th Amendment’s so-called “insurrectionist ban.” 

On Wednesday evening, Cook County Circuit Judge Tracie Porter announced Trump’s ban from appearing on Illinois’s 2024 Republican presidential primary ballot due to his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill protests. 

The decision is currently on hold, giving Trump a short time to appeal the judge’s ruling. 

“The court also realizes the magnitude of this decision and its impact on the upcoming primary Illinois elections,” Porter wrote. “The Illinois State Board of Election 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.”

Porter’s decision comes one month after the Illinois State Board of Elections dismissed an anti-2024 Trump challenge. In a unanimous vote, the election board threw out the case, stating that it did not have jurisdiction to review the matter. Illinois goes to the polls on March 19

A similar issue regarding Colorado and Maine is also pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Colorado recently barred the former president from appearing on the state’s primary ballot. 

However, those decisions are on pause as they are undergoing an appeal. 

In January, Porter questioned Trump’s legal team on the difference between a “riot” and an “insurrection.” She also asked whether the former president should first be convicted of a crime before he is banned from office.

“Is it important to understand why this mob of people came together and what they were actually trying to do?” Porter asked Trump’s lawyers. 

In response, Trump’s attorney Nicholas Nelson said that it “Was about one government act, and there’s no indication that the rioters had any plan. They were just angry.”