Rahm Emanuel’s bid for Chicago Mayor put on hold UPDATE

January 24, 2011 | SoundOffSister | |

An appeals court in Illinois has just ruled that Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s former Chief of Staff, is ineligible to run for Mayor of Chicago because he has not meet the city’s residency requirements.  You may recall that a Cook County judge had ruled earlier that he did meet the requirements, and, thus, was eligible to run.

I’ll update this later as soon as I can get more specifics of the court’s ruling, but, thought you might be interested in the latest news on what is bound to be a continuing saga.

Update:

Should you care to do so, you can read the entire 42 page decision of the Illinois court here.  But, “distilled to its basics” (as we lawyers would say), the court held that the Chicago ordinance that requires a candidate to “reside in” the city for one year before being eligible to run means that the candidate must “live in” the city for that period of time.  An intention to return and leaving some belongings there doesn’t do it.  Resorting to some 200 years of history, the court felt that a candidate cannot “know the wants and demands of his constituency”, unless he or she is actually present in the community for the required period of time.

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SoundOffSister

The Sound Off Sister was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and special trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division; a partner in the Florida law firm of Shutts & Bowen, and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, School of Law. The Sound Off Sister offers frequent commentary concerning legislation making its way through Congress, including the health reform legislation passed in early 2010.

8 Comments

  1. Dimsdale on January 24, 2011 at 4:59 pm

    LOL!  He should have commuted to work!  I am sure Pelosi would have lent him her, I mean, our jumbo jet…



  2. winnie888 on January 25, 2011 at 1:47 am

    This court's decision is poetry in motion.  Thanks for the update! 🙂



  3. RoBrDona on January 25, 2011 at 6:28 am

    Isn't it fascinating that the President's right hand man gravitates toward the one position in the United States that is still used to teach how political corruption works? And isn't it poetic justice that he can't even qualify????



  4. Plainvillian on January 25, 2011 at 6:43 am

    None of this matters.  When the tombstones have voted, Rahm will be mayor.



  5. Murphy on January 25, 2011 at 7:03 am

    I just have to ask; Is Rahm "CarpetBagger" Emanuel's campaign manager Susan Bysiewicz?



  6. Lynn on January 26, 2011 at 2:01 am

    A Take of Two Cities – Chicago and Washington



  7. Lynn on January 26, 2011 at 2:02 am

    Should have been Tale, but then Take, maybe that's better.



  8. Tim-in-Alabama on January 26, 2011 at 3:39 am

    It couldn't have happened to a worse person. For all Barry Soetero's talk of change, the Obama administration has mostly been made up of the worst characters from the Clinton Administration, and that includes Rahm and Hillary. It will be interesting to see how the Illinois Supreme Court rules.



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