Fox News’ Jonathan Turley blasted an Illinois judge’s ruling to remove former President Donald Trump from the ballot.
Cook County Circuit Judge Tracie Porter ruled Trump to be removed from the state ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which states no person should hold public office if they had “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” Turley said the opinion is a “cut-and-paste” from the Colorado Supreme Court decision in late December.
“It’s perfectly superfluous,” Turley said Thursday. “Most judges have said we’re waiting for the Supreme Court. There was no reason for this court to issue this opinion. It’s basically a cut-and-paste of Colorado. She basically just accepted everything that Colorado had said and put her own name on it and it has that same feeling of me too, I want to be included, but she’s not gonna be included. This is not gonna be in front of the Supreme Court. We expect a decision any day now.”
Turley insinuated that the decision to remove Trump from the ballot would be overturned, arguing the oral arguments relating to the Colorado case “did not go well” for Colorado’s attorneys. (RELATED: ‘Very Tough Questions’: Jonathan Turley Predicts What The Supreme Court Will Focus On In Trump Ballot Case)
“And the oral argument did not go well. It was not the conservatives who asked the most difficult questions, it was the justices from the left of the court who raised a number of the problems, including Justice Jackson, look, this is ambiguous,” Turley continued. “Why should I adopt the least democratic interpretation of this constitutional amendment? That doesn’t bode well. So those people are expecting that the court will roundly reject this theory and this disqualification effort.”
Illinois became the third state to remove Trump from the ballot by following suit with Colorado and Maine. Following Colorado’s unprecedented decision, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows ruled in a Dec. 28 decision that Trump should be removed under the “insurrectionist” ban of the 14th Amendment.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case and heard oral arguments on Feb. 8. All of the justices appeared weary of Colorado’s decision.
Justice Elena Kagan, who former President Barack Obama appointed to the court, told Jason Murray — the attorney representing Colorado — that he has to make the case for “why a single state should decide who gets to be president of the United States.” Murray argued it is ultimately up to the Supreme Court to settle that issue for the rest of the country.
Chief Justice John Roberts asked Murray to consider the “plain consequences” of the case to advance partisanship in future elections.