Yesterday a political activist judge of Illinois seemingly wanted to join the fray in getting her name out in the world as one of those guilty of election interference in 2024.
Cook County Judge Tracie Porter was sworn in by the Illinois Supreme Court unanimously as an At-Large Cook County Circuit Court Judge (countywide) on November 12, 2021. The Illinois Supreme Court consists of 7 judges representing 5 districts of the state. Only 2 of those 7 are Republicans. She won the election to keep her seat in 2022 in the Richard J. Daley Center in downtown Chicago.
This is where this story gets funny:
Porter is a traffic court judge where she also presides over “Class A” Misdemeanor criminal acts.
This week Porter decided it was within her powers to remove former President Donald J. Trump from the Illinois Republican Primary ballot of March 19. She based her overreach decision on the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and the Democrats talking point of an “insurrectionist ban.” In doing so though she neglected the fact that nobody has been charged with insurrection related to the Capitol’s mostly peaceful protest of January 6, 2021 and while the Democrats are famous for quoting, “Nobody is above the law,” they conveniently forget, “Everyone is innocent until proven guilty.”
President Trump has a US Supreme Court case date coming up on this legal issue of the week of April 22 but that didn’t stop Porter from barring Trump from the Illinois ballot one month after the anti-Trump challenge was dismissed by the Illinois State Board of Elections.
Judge Porter is an African-American native of Chicago who grew up on the south-side in the Englewood community. Judge Porter currently resides in Country Club Hills which is a southern suburb of Chicago. Until this moment in history it would be easy to truly admire Judge Porter as a truly remarkable woman.
Judge Porter holds a Juris Doctorate Degree from Drake University Law School. She received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in International Business from Cornell College. She graduated from Whitney M. Young High School where she graduated in the top ten percent of her class.
Judge Porter has a lengthy distinguished career as a lawyer. She has taught as a Professor of Law where she has been well respected. She has practiced law in her own firm Tracie R. Porter, P.C. Porter has held law licenses to practice law in both Illinois and New York.
Some of Porter’s affiliations include: The American Bar Association (ABA), International Law and Real Property & Probate Sections; National Bar Association (NBA), National Chair for Education Initiative, School-To-Prison Pipeline and Voter Rights; Cook County Bar Association (CCBA), Real Estate Law Committee Chair and Lawyers in the Community Committee Member, Recipient of CCBA’s Presidential and Meritorious Service Awards; Chicago Bar Association (CBA), Law at the Library Series and Young Lawyer’s Division; and Black Women Lawyers’ Association of Greater Chicago (BWLA) as a former Member of the Board of Directors. Porter is a member of the Illinois Judges Association (IJA), the Illinois Judicial Council (IJC) and the International Association of Women Judges.
CONCLUSION:
For many years now I have been saying, “This won’t stop until the Republicans start fighting back.”
Judge Porter’s action would make for a good place to draw that line in the sand. Many people don’t know it but in a matter like this there is the legal issue of “Individual capacity” v. “Official capacity” which means somebody, such as Judge Porter, can be sued both personally as well as professionally for coloring outside the lines, so to speak. I have seen this happen in Illinois when a city police chief was wrongfully and illegally terminated and he came back and sued every member of the city council and mayor both personally and professionally. The case was settled out of court before trial.
From the law office website of Plunkett and Cooney:
“The U.S. Supreme Court has declared that qualified immunity protects ‘all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law.’ Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 341 (1986). Further, ‘officials are immune unless the law clearly proscribed the actions they took.’ Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 639 (1987) (quoting Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511 (1985)). Qualified immunity is a defense available to state and local officials and employees under 42 U.S.C. §1983 and to federal officials under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, 403 U.S. 388 (1971).
Initial Considerations
One of the first questions that an attorney should ask when confronted with a complaint against a governmental employee is whether a plaintiff has asserted a liability claim against the employee personally, at all. Governmental employees may be sued in two capacities: an official capacity or an individual capacity, sometimes called personal capacity.” User’s Guide to Qualified Immunity
Judge Porter blew her professional immunity when she ruled in a matter beyond the power of her courtroom knowing that the Illinois Board of Elections has already ruled on this matter, not to mention this matter is to be taken up by the SCOTUS in April after the March Illinois Primary.
So why would a judge with such an incredible career pull such a Bud Light move?
The answer may be found in the many videos like this one so cringe worthy for the Democrats:
“A flashing red light for Dems: Chicago resident on Biden’s handling of the migrant crisis” – MSNBC
Most of America does not understand that Illinois is not so much a blue state as it is a red state. That is to say, the state is mostly red in real estate on the map but it is blue in the major population center of the state Chicago voting blue.
So the fact of the matter is, since black activists of Chicago are now publicly threatening to turn Illinois red, people like Judge Tracie Porter are going to try to take that right away from them keeping Illinois blue. It is just that simple.
Copyright © 2024 by Mark S. Schwendau
