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A Cook County judge ruled the Illinois State Board of Elections must take former President Donald Trump\u2019s name off the state\u2019s March 19 primary ballot Wednesday. But she placed her order on hold until Friday to allow an appeal.<\/p>\n
Judge Tracie Porter issued her decision after\u00a0a group of voters<\/a>\u00a0trying to remove Trump\u2019s name from the primary ballot over the Jan. 6, 2021,\u00a0attack<\/a>\u00a0on the U.S. Capitol sued to counter the election board\u2019s\u00a0unanimous rejection of its effort.<\/a>\u00a0The\u00a0five voters<\/a>\u00a0argued Trump is ineligible to hold office because he encouraged and did little to stop the Capitol riot.<\/p>\n The case is one of dozens of lawsuits filed to remove Trump from the ballot, arguing he is ineligible due to a rarely used clause in the 14th Amendment prohibiting those who \u201cengaged in insurrection\u201d from holding office. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month signaled that it is likely to reject this strategy when it heard an appeal of a Colorado ruling removing Trump from the ballot there. Like the Illinois decision, that Colorado ruling is on hold until the appeal is finished.<\/p>\n Porter, in her 38-page ruling, wrote the petition by the group of voters should have been granted because they had met their burden and the Election Board\u2019s decision was \u201cclearly erroneous.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a historic victory,\u201d said Ron Fein, Legal Director of Free Speech For People, co-lead counsel in the case. \u201cEvery court or official that has addressed the merits of Trump\u2019s constitutional eligibility has found that he engaged in insurrection after taking the oath of office and is therefore disqualified from the presidency.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung issued a statement saying \u201can activist Democrat judge in Illinois summarily overruled the state\u2019s board of elections and contradicted earlier decisions from dozens of other state and federal jurisdictions. This is an unconstitutional ruling that we will quickly appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n Porter said her order would be put on hold if the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling is ultimately \u201cinconsistent\u201d with hers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nSubscribe to the new Fortune CEO Weekly Europe newsletter to get corner office insights on the biggest business stories in Europe. Sign up<\/a> for free.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n