A Republican judge in Illinois has affirmed what others have agreed: that Donald Trump participated in an attempted insurrection against the United States, and as such, is not eligible to hold office.
The catch is that Judge Clark Erickson wasn’t issuing a final ruling, but a recommendation to the Board of Elections, which will vote on Tuesday.
Even then, Judge Erickson warned, the final say won’t come from an elections board but the court system. No matter what decision the board reaches on Tuesday, its sure to head into courts, where it’s expected that the U.S. Supreme Court will have the last word.
Erickson’s recommendation is still noteworthy, not only as one more affirmation that the former president is ineligible to hold office again, but for destroying arguments claiming that this is a partisan persecution.
After all, he’s a Republican.
In an email Sunday, Free Speech For People told Washington Press:
“Judge Erickson is the first Republican judge anywhere in the country to find that Donald Trump engaged in insurrection and is disqualified from office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
The flip side, though, is that Judge Erickson found that the Board of Elections should dismiss the challenge, and leave courts to remove Trump from the ballot.
He indicated that he doesn’t believe state law allows the BOE to act on removing a candidate under the 14th Amendment, but believes that he should be removed. Concluding his opinion, he wrote:
“In the event that the Board decides to not follow the Hearing Officer’s recommendation to grant the Candidate’s Motion to Dismiss, the Hearing Officer recommends that the Board find that the evidence presented at the hearing on January 26, 2024 proves by a preponderance of the evidence that President Trump engaged in insurrection, within the meaning of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, and should have his name removed from the March, 2024 primary ballot in Illinois.”
If the issue is turned over to the court system, they may soon have a firm precedent for a decision. A similar case in Colorado is before the Supreme Court for hearing, and scheduled to be argued on February 8th, according to SCOTUS Blog.
One takeaway from the whole process, though, is that its unlikely a ruling against Trump will open up a slippery slope in which every candidate’s eligibility is challenged for the foreseeable future. Nothing suggests any decisions on the 14th Amendment cases have been made lightly, and the challenges are getting thorough vetting in multiple courts.
