 |
| EFE |
The decision was made by Cook County Circuit Judge Tracie Porter, who also issued an immediate stay of her own order to give the former president's lawyers time to appeal until next Friday.
The Republican primaries in Illinois are scheduled for March 19, and after this judicial decision, the state becomes the third where something similar happens, following Colorado and Maine.
In all of these cases, judges have based their decisions on the so-called "insurrection clause" found in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
This well-known section states that no "person who has engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against the Constitution and has also served as a U.S. official can be "elected to any office, civil or military," including the presidency and vice presidency.
It was ratified in 1868, after the Civil War, with the goal of preventing former Southern Confederacy rebels who betrayed the Constitution from returning to power.
In an unprecedented ruling, Colorado's judiciary determined in December that the 14th Amendment disqualifies the Republican due to the "insurrection" of the Capitol assault in 2021, when a horde of Trump supporters attacked Congress to try to stop the ratification of Biden's victory.
Under the same argument, election authorities in Maine also removed Trump from the primaries.
However, these two decisions were put on hold because the Colorado decision was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is yet to make a decision on the matter.
More: Biden and Trump win in the primaries of their parties in Michigan
The hearing before the Supreme Court took place on February 8, and during it, the judges expressed reservations about the national implications of validating Colorado's decision to remove Trump for the November elections.
Both the more progressive justices, such as Sonia Sotomayor or Elena Kagan, and the more conservative ones, including Chief Justice John Roberts, suggested discomfort with the idea that individual states interpret the constitutional eligibility of a candidate for a national office.
Trump is the favorite to secure the Republican nomination and face President Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate, in the presidential elections scheduled for November 5.