(WatchDogReport.org) – Former President Donald Trump has launched an appeal against a Democratic judge’s decision to overturn a previous ruling to keep him on the ballot for the 2024 presidential election.
Cook County State Circuit Court Judge Tracie R. Porter ruled on February 28 that Trump had participated in an insurrection and called for the previous ruling to be reversed. Porter called for the board to remove Trump or suppress votes for him. A spokesperson for the Trump Campaign claimed Porter’s ruling was an attempt by “Soros-funded” Democratic groups to interfere with the presidential election. The spokesperson branded the verdict unconstitutional, arguing that Trump is currently dominating polls in Illinois and is set to make the country great again.
On March 4, the Supreme Court dealt a significant blow to the attempts in Illinois, Colorado, and Maine to remove the former president from the ballot by ruling that states cannot remove Trump from the ballot. The Supreme Court already made clear its skepticism over the ruling of the Colorado Supreme Court as concerns were raised about the prospect of granting states the freedom to remove from the ballots candidates from opposing parties.
The verdict reversed the Colorado ruling that had found that Trump could not serve again as president under Section 3 of Amendment 14 of the Constitution. The 9-0 decision in the majority conservative court was called a “big win for America” by Trump. The justices concluded that the responsibility for interpreting and enforcing the 14th Amendment with regard to federal candidates and federal officers lay with Congress, not with the states, and that they, therefore, had to reverse the Colorado ruling. They stated that there is nothing in the constitution that requires them to “endure such chaos.”
Three of the Supreme Court’s justices – Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and Neil Gorsuch – were nominated by Trump. Colorado’s Democratic Secretary of State, Jena Griswold, commented after the ruling that she was disappointed with the court’s decision to strip the states of their authority. Having referred to Trump as an “ineligible insurrectionist” in her January brief to the Supreme Court, she argued that Colorado should have the authority to bar “oath-breaking” candidates from the ballot.
The verdict prevents any state from removing Trump, or any other federal candidate, from an election ballot based on claims under the 14th Amendment.
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