The Illinois election board unanimously voted to keep Donald Trump on the state’s primary ballot, rejecting a challenge under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

Illinois is the latest state to hear a challenge to remove Trump from the presidential ballot using the 14th Amendment’s ‘Insurrection Clause.’

The Associated Press reports:

The board’s unanimous ruling comes after its hearing officer, a retired judge and Republican, found that a “preponderance of the evidence” shows Trump is ineligible to run for president because he violated a constitutional ban on those who “engaged in insurrection” from holding office. But the hearing officer recommended the board let the courts make the ultimate decision.

The eight-member board, composed of four Democrats and four Republicans, agreed with a recommendation from its lawyer to let Trump remain on the ballot by determining it didn’t have the authority to determine whether he violated the U.S Constitution.

Board member Catherine McCrory prefaced her vote with a statement: “I want it to be clear that this Republican believes that there was an insurrection on Jan. 6. There’s no doubt in my mind that he manipulated, instigated, aided and abetted an insurrection on Jan. 6.”

But McCrory said she agreed the board doesn’t have jurisdiction to enforce that conclusion.

WATCH:

The Colorado Supreme Court previously ruled to disqualify Trump from the state’s ballot under the 14th Amendment.

However, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case over Trump’s eligibility for the ballot.

The high court will hear oral arguments in February.

Per CBS News:

A state trial court in Denver ruled in November that the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 constituted an insurrection and found Trump engaged in insurrection, marking the first time a judge has reached such a conclusion about his conduct. But the judge ruled that Section 3 does not apply to the presidency or someone who has taken the presidential oath, and ordered Trump to be listed on the primary ballot.

The Colorado Supreme Court, though, reversed the lower court’s finding about the scope of Section 3 and, in its 4-3 decision, said Trump is disqualified from holding the presidency.

“We do not reach these conclusions lightly. We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us,” the majority wrote in its opinion. “We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.”

Trump and the Colorado Republican Party appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, urging the justices to overturn the state high court’s ruling. All parties, including the voters who challenged Trump’s eligibility, pushed the court to decide the issue swiftly.

If allowed to stand, the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling would “mark the first time in the history of the United States that the judiciary has prevented voters from casting ballots for the leading major-party presidential candidate,” lawyers for the former president warned the justices in a filing.

They called the question of Trump’s eligibility one of “paramount importance,” and urged the Supreme Court to “return the right to vote for their candidate of choice to the voters.”

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