TDS Voters seek to have Donald Trump removed from Illinois Primary ballot

[StarryEyedLad]

Voters seek to have Donald Trump removed from Illinois Primary ballot
By Andrew Ramos, John Dodge
Updated on: January 4, 2024 / 4:49 PM CST / CBS Chicago

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A group of Illinois voters wants former President Donald J. Trump removed from the Illinois Primary election in March.

CBS 2's Andrew Ramos reports a petition filed this week asks for a hearing with the Illinois State Board of Elections to keep the former president off the ballot on March 19.

The group – Steven Daniel Anderson, Charles J. Holley, Jack L Hickman, Ralph E Cintron, and Darryl P. Baker – says Mr. Trump is not qualified to hold office because he violated Section 3 of the Constitution's 14th amendment, known as the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause. The five men are being represented by a voting rights organization called Free Speech for People.

"Engaged in rebellion"

The petitioners say Mr. Trump "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" for his actions during the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

"We have seen Donald Trump tweet. We have seen Donald Trump double down with pride on what happened on January 6 to the extent that the electoral board needs to evaluate," said the group's attorney, Caryn Lederer.

"If you try to overthrow the government, you cannot then be part of the government. "

The petition follows legal rulings in Colorado and Maine disqualifying the former president from their primary ballots. The Trump campaign is appealing those decisions to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"This chaos will continue"

"Tomorrow, you may get more states, and next week, we will get even more," said CBS 2 Legal Analyst Irv Miller. "This chaos will continue until the court makes a decision. The Supreme Court has to rule on it pretty quickly."

The Illinois petition says the events of Jan. 6 "were an insurrection or a rebellion under Section 3, a violent, coordinated effort to storm the Capitol to obstruct and prevent the Vice President of the United States and United States Congress [from] certifying President Biden's victory, and to illegally extend then-President Trump's tenure in office."

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars a person who has sworn an oath to support the Constitution and later engages in insurrection against it from holding federal or state office. The provision has seldom been used in modern times, but it became the centerpiece of legal challenges to Trump's candidacy this year as he mounted a bid for a second term in the White House.

In Michigan, the state supreme court rejected a bid from a group of voters to remove Trump from the primary ballot. In Minnesota, the state's high court dismissed a case on behalf of several voters regarding the primary vote. In both cases, voters are not precluded from pursuing their challenges before the general election.

According to Lawfare, there are pending cases in 14 other states challenging Trump's candidacy.

The Illinois State Board of Elections had yet to set the petition for hearing, spokesperson Matt Dietrich told the Associated Press. The board is set to hear 32 other objections to the proposed ballot at its Jan. 11 meeting.

Voters seek to have Donald Trump removed from Illinois Primary ballot

A petition filed this week asks for a hearing with the Illinois State Board of Elections to keep the former president off the ballot on March 19.

www.cbsnews.com

So 5 dudes, a group called 'Free Speech for People', and their lawyer named Caryn!

 

[jond911]

These clowns are getting pounded on Failbook!!

 

[Bolt]

I'm wondering if people could do the same with Biden. After all, he has not upheld his oath of office. One of the most egregious is his continued failure to secure the southern border and stop the invasion of our country. And among other failures, he knowingly released illegal immigrants who tested positive for COVID-19 from Border Patrol custody and into the United States. He knowingly transported COVID-19 positive illegal immigrants throughout the United States, putting American citizens at increased risk. He aided and abetted the enemy by failing to secure or destroy American-donated military equipment as Taliban forces overtook territory in Afghanistan, leaving billions of dollars' worth of military hardware in the hands of enemy soldiers.

Are we going to start filing to remove any candidate that we don't like by searching for a reason, any reason, to do so? Maybe I don't like a mayoral candidate. I could dig and find he didn't return a library book or failed to pay a parking fine, so I file to remove him from the ballot. If these idiots succeed, and I don't believe they will, this could really get out of hand. Hopefully the SC sees it that way as well.

 

[Sacajawea]

In no way shape or form could Jan 6 be considered "an attempt to overthrow the government". This lie keeps being used as an excuse, over & over, and there are some people who are stupid enough to believe the life.

 

[CaryC]

Ballot Cleansing: Democrats Are Moving To Bar Republicans From Ballots Nationwide​

Authored by Jonathan Turley,
Below is my column in the New York Post on the expansion of the 14th Amendment theory to attempt to remove Republican candidates for Congress from the ballots.

Dozens of Democratic members have already called for the disqualification of up to 126 Republican colleagues under the same sweeping theory.

These efforts show how this theory could place this country on a slippery slope to political chaos if not clearly and finally rejected by the Supreme Court.

Here is the column:

As the decisions disqualifying former President Donald Trump from the 2024 election work their way through the courts, a new filing in Pennsylvania seeks the same “ballot cleansing” by barring Republican Rep. Scott Perry.
It’s only the latest effort targeting congressional candidates as Democrats seek to bar opponents as “insurrectionists” for questioning the election of President Biden.

We have become a nation of Madame Defarges — eagerly knitting names of those to be subject to arbitrary justice.
Former congressional candidate Gene Stilp, who’s previously made headlines by burning MAGA flags with swastikas outside courthouses, filed the challenge.

Using the 14th Amendment to disqualify candidates like Perry is consistent with Stilp’s signature flag-burning stunts.
But what’s chilling is how many support such efforts, including Democratic officeholders from Maine’s Secretary of State to dozens of members of Congress.

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) sought to bar 126 members of Congress under the same theory for challenging the election before Jan. 6, 2021.
Similar legislation from Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) to disqualify members got 63 co-sponsors, all Democrats, including New York Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamaal Bowman and Ritchie Torres and “Squad” members Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

When Maine’s secretary of state disqualified Trump, three in the state’s congressional delegation — Sens. Angus King (I) and Susan Collins (R) and Rep. Jared Golden (D) — condemned the decision. But others supported the antidemocratic action.

The grounds were virtually identical to those of Stilp. He accuses Perry of supporting challenges to Biden’s election and opposing its certification.

Of course, he ignores Democratic members who sought to block certification of Republican presidents under the very same law with no factual or legal basis.

• Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) praised the effort then-Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) organized to challenge the certification of President George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election.
• Jan. 6 committee head Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) voted to challenge it in the House.
• Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) sought to block certification of the 2016 election result — particularly ironic since he’s a leading voice calling for Trump to be disqualified.

He insisted last week on CNN that the effort to prevent citizens from voting for Trump is the very embodiment of democracy:

“If you think about it, of all of the forms of disqualification that we have, the one that disqualifies people for engaging in insurrection is the most democratic because it’s the one where people choose themselves to be disqualified.”

That is akin to treating every criminal charge as a consensual act of incarceration because the accused chose his path in life.

This is also being played out in state races.

The filing against Perry came the same day Pennsylvania Democratic state Sen. Art Haywood made public a complaint to the Senate Ethics Committee against his Republican colleague Doug Mastriano accusing him of playing a role in the plot to overturn the election.

Notably, in his effort to “hold insurrectionists accountable,” Haywood admitted he relied on the same evidence from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington that was used in the Colorado case.

“Insurrectionist” is the newest label to excuse any abuse.

During the McCarthy period, individuals were accused of being Communists or “fellow travelers.”
Now you have Stilp accusing Perry of being “supportive of insurrectionists.”
Democrats and pundits have claimed civil libertarians and journalists who have testified against the government’s growing censorship efforts are enablers of insurrectionists and even “Putin lovers.”
These Democratic members and activists vividly demonstrated the dangerous implications of this unfounded theory.

Figures like Stilp are wrong on the law but right about one thing: There are few real limits once you embrace this theory.

If the challenges work, there is no reason they can’t be used unilaterally against any candidate (and without any criminal charges, let alone convictions).
It is instantly both self-executing and self-satisfying. It would put the world’s most successful democracy on a slippery slope to political chaos.

That is why the Supreme Court needs to take up this issue and put this pernicious theory to bed once and for all.

Until the court rejects this antidemocratic ploy, activists eager to win elections through the courts will keep using it, and it will metastasize throughout our body politic.

With the support of elected officials across the country, they can then join Stilp in moving from burning flags to torching the Constitution in a fit of exhilarating rage.

Ballot Cleansing: Democrats Are Moving To Bar Republicans From Ballots Nationwide | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

 

[CaryC]

In no way shape or form could Jan 6 be considered "an attempt to overthrow the government". This lie keeps being used as an excuse, over & over, and there are some people who are stupid enough to believe the life.

"Some"?

 

[Illini Warrior]

with Gov Pritzker owning the IL court system it's a wide open deal >>> just revealed that instead of the LEAGAL amounted $1.5M Pritzker contributions to two of the IL SCOTUS judges - it was actually $3.5M each .....

 

[The Hammer]

It's what commies do. Silence the opposition if you can't control it.

Though in this case, a flip-flop with a D next to its name would carry IL by at least 10, so not sure what this affects in the big picture.

 

[Kathy in FL]

This is really getting out of hand. "Voters" are really just activists. The SCOTUS needs to act one way or the other because of how out of hand this is getting.