Illinois judge rules Donald Trump is disqualified from the state's 2024 election ballot

An Illinois judge barred former President Donald Trump from the state's Republican presidential primary ballot on Wednesday over his alleged role in the Capitol riot.

The decision reignites the battle in Illinois to remove the former president from 2024 ballots. Cook County Circuit Judge Tracie Porter agreed with a group of Illinois voters who argued that Trump should be disqualified for violating a clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

Advocates in Illinois – and across the country – have argued that Trump engaged in the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. They say that bars him from serving as president again because a section of the 14th Amendment, enacted after the Civil War, blocks people from office who had engaged in insurrection after previously promising to support the Constitution.

Trump argues the amendment does not apply to former presidents. And even if it does, he did not “engage in insurrection.”

More:US Supreme Court seems poised to reject efforts to kick Donald Trump off the ballot

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A state election board in Illinois last month said Trump could run in Illinois' presidential primary, however.

That decision came after a former Republican judge in Illinois, who had been appointed to hear arguments in an insurrection case against Trump, found that he's ineligible for the presidency. But the judge also recommended that the board leave the decision in the hands of the courts.

Porter on Wednesday delayed her ruling from taking effect, as Trump is expected to appeal the decision, and the Supreme Court is expected to weigh in.

The U.S. Supreme Court is also considering whether the 14th Amendment can be used to disqualify Trump. The former president has already been barred from ballots in Colorado and Maine over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, though he's trying to fight the decisions.

Contributing: Maureen Groppe