Former President Donald Trump is appealing a lower court decision that bars him from Illinois' primary ballot.
Lawyers for Trump issued the appeal early Thursday, just hours after an Illinois court handed the ruling that said Trump could be held off the state's presidential primary ballot.
"Today, an activist Democrat judge in Illinois summarily overruled the state's board of elections and contradicted earlier decisions from dozens of other state and federal jurisdictions. This is an unconstitutional ruling that we will quickly appeal," said Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung in a statement late Wednesday.
Circuit Court Judge Tracie R. Porter said the judgment could not be enforced until March 1 to allow time for Trump to appeal.
Illinois' presidential primary is on March 19, but early voting can begin March 4.
Wednesday's ruling in Illinois is among several similar rulings that have been made throughout the U.S. involving Trump's ballot access.
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Voters in numerous states have challenged Trump's eligibility for the ballot, citing the 14th Amendment's insurrection clause. The amendment, which was ratified three years after the end of the Civil War, says:
"No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court considered arguments by officials in Colorado and the Trump campaign on whether state officials can hold a presidential candidate off of the ballot. The state of Maine also is holding Trump off of its ballot, pending the Supreme Court's decision.
Trump protested the results of the 2020 presidential election naming Joe Biden as the winner and held a rally moments before his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol during the counting of Electoral College votes, disrupting the proceedings.
Some of Trump's opponents claim that his actions leading up to the insurrection at the Capitol would make him ineligible to serve as president under the 14th Amendment. In December, Colorado became the first state to ban Trump from the state's primary ballot.
Some states said they would wait for the Supreme Court ruling before deciding whether to allow Trump on their ballots.
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