The stunning irony of an Illinois judge tossing Trump off the state's GOP primary ballot.
The judge acted on a suit challenging Trump brought by a group ironically called, “Free Speech for People.”
It’s motto must be “free speech for me, but not for thee.”
Here’s the story from the Chicago Tribune:
A Cook County judge ruled Wednesday that former President Donald Trump’s name should be struck from the March 19 Illinois Republican primary ballot because he engaged in insurrection in the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and is disqualified from holding the office of president.
Judge Tracie Porter made her ruling based on the case law surrounding the Colorado Supreme Court’s 4-3 decision in December that removed Trump from that state’s ballot based on the “insurrection clause” of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing the Colorado decision.
Her decision was a cut and paste job in which she used an identical ruling from Colorado that also booted Trump off the ballot, That and another case from Maine are now before the U.,S. Supreme Court.
Which means that Porter couldn’t wait for the high court to decide the issue. Which means that Porter’s ruling was unnecessary. Meant only to demonstrate her woke credentials. To win election.
Here’s what she said her job would be when the Illinois Supreme Court three years ago first appointed her associate judge. (That’s the usual procedure in Illinois. First get appointed to fill a vacancy, and then later face a retention ballot,) She said:
My motto is impacting lives and changing communities and that is how I will approach this new position.
Wow. Yikes. Sheesh.
That’s not her job, Her job is to follow the law. Of course, she will impact lives, but “changing communities” reeks of the kind of activism that has become all too common in today’s judiciary.
As for “Free speech for People,” what could be less free than shutting people out of a chance to exercise a most fundamental right to express their choice of candidates? If anything, this is a real threat to democracy. Of course we hear nothing critical about this ruling from Democrats/liberals/progressives who suspect anyone who doesn’t agree with their hard left agenda is a “threat to democracy.”
Could a consequence of this ruling if upheld by the Supreme Court be that Trump’s name also would not be on the general election ballot? Now that’s ever scarier.