I read the Appellate Court opinion yesterday. The reasoning of the Court, and application of law to the facts, is not entirely clear-cut in my opinion. IF (and that’s a big IF) the Illinois Supreme Court wanted to reverse the Appellate Court and order Emanuel’s name reinstated on the ballot, I think there is a way the Court could construe the law to do so.
The real questions are:
1. Is there enough time? The election is only a few weeks away, and the ballots need to be printed and I presume early voting will start shortly.
2. Given the time crunch, would the Illinois Supreme Court even want to jump in and make a rush decision? Would they consider it a matter of such grave importance to the State that they would basically halt all other business of the Court just to reach a quick decision on this one matter?
Of course, if the Illinois Supreme Court were inclined to let the lower Court opinion stand, they will just pass on the appeal. Not deciding does decide the case, but other than that they are under no obligation to do anything.
You know, I don’t like the guy, but I do think the law involved here is unfair. It’s not right that a person should be punished for serving in a national capacity. We have laws to protect the votes of military personnel in this regard.
With that being said, the law WAS THE LAW when this took place, and the law was, and is, very clear.
In my opinion, the entire affair demonstrates very clearly that these people don’t think that laws apply to them.
If they're liberal Democratic hacks appointed by other liberal Democratic hacks, I think we already know the answer to this.