14th Amendment: Illinois Election Commission hears objections to candidate Trump based on January 6th riot

CNN
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A former judge hired by the Illinois State Board of Elections held a hearing Friday on whether the 14th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban” applies to former President Donald Trump.

Several voters have filed challenges to Trump, with Illinois joining Colorado and Maine in barring him from the 2024 presidential ballot due to his role in the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. argued that it should be excluded. The rulings in those states have been suspended pending the outcome of Trump’s appeal of the Colorado case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Retired Illinois judge Clark Erickson presided over a roughly two-hour hearing Friday in Chicago. His recommendation is expected to be announced when the full electoral committee meets on Tuesday. The committee will then vote on its recommendations.

The challenger’s attorney, Matthew Pierce, argued that Trump submitted “false” documents to Illinois election officials when he certified that he was “fully qualified to serve as president.” As a result, Mr. Trump “may not be on the ballot,” Pierce argued.

Pierce played harrowing video footage of the storming of the U.S. Capitol, saying President Trump “repeatedly failed to condemn what happened on January 6th and more recently called people convicted of crimes that day ‘hostages.’ “I’m calling,” he said.

“What unites us all in this profession is respect for the rule of law,” Pierce told the judge at the end of his arguments. “If we lose that, we might all be better off doing something else or finding another country to live in. That’s at the heart of this case.”

Scott Gessler, Trump’s lawyer who represented Trump in the Colorado case, repeated many of the defenses used to fight off similar lawsuits across the country. Cases have been dismissed on procedural grounds in Michigan, Minnesota and other states.

Gessler, a former Colorado secretary of state, said the insurrectionist ban did not apply to the presidency and that “no act of violence was committed by President Trump” in connection with the January 6 deaths. He insisted that the incident did not constitute a riot. . He also raised concerns about due process.

“We are a nation of laws and a democracy,” Gessler said, adding that the challengers “are using highly bogus legal theories to make political points and block President Trump from appearing.” “I’m doing it,” he accused. Ballot paper. ”

Judge Erickson, a Republican, served on the Kankakee County Circuit Court for 25 years before retiring in 2020. He was appointed in 1995, elected to a full Republican term in 1996, and won a retention election in 2002. , 2008, 2014.

The Illinois State Board of Elections is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to accept Erickson’s nomination in Trump’s lawsuit, a bipartisan commission made up of four Democrats and four Republicans. Their decisions can be appealed to Illinois state courts.

The Illinois Republican primary election will be held on March 19th. With President Trump dominating the race for the Republican nomination, the Illinois race may have little political impact. But the battle for his spot in the primary is a proxy contest over his overall eligibility to return to the White House.

At Tuesday’s meeting, election officials are also scheduled to vote on a 14th Amendment challenge filed against President Joe Biden by a group of conservative activists.

They claim that Biden “gave aid and comfort to America’s enemies” by failing to secure the U.S.-Mexico border. Legal experts have largely rejected the idea of ​​applying the “insurrectionist ban” against Biden as an act without merit, even though some Republicans have embraced the move as a way to retaliate against Democratic incumbents. I’m blaming.