UPDATE: A prominent Illinois election lawyer who asked to remain anonymous because of his many political clients in Chicago, told the Huffington Post that there may be hope for Emanuel yet.
The Illinois Supreme Court, he said, "would certainly give the Appellate Court respect but I wouldn't say that they are constrained from reversing their decision."
That said, Monday's two-to-one ruling throwing Emanuel's name off the Chicago mayoral ballot was a major legal set back that dramatically complicated the former White House chief of staff's run for the post. Rather than seek a rehearing with the appellate court, the Illinois lawyer said he expected the Emanuel campaign to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court either Wednesday or as early as Tuesday. The Court will likely choose to take the case before the week was over.
"This is a matter of serious importance affecting essentially half of the state of Illinois just because of the population and impact of the economy," the lawyer said. "So you can expect the Supreme Court will act very quickly. The parties will simply recycle their briefs responding to the appellate court opinion."
The Chicago News Cooperative reported Monday morning that an Illinois Appellate Court overturned a decision regarding Rahm Emanuel's Chicago residency. The court reportedly decided Emanuel is not eligible to run for mayor of Chicago because he has not been a resident of the city for one year.
"We conclude that the candidate neither meets the the municipal code's requirement that he have 'resided' in Chicago for the year preceding the election in which he seeks to participate nor falls within any exception to the requirement," the ruling stated. (Read the court decision here.)
An attorney who argued on Emanuel's behalf told the Chicago Sun-Times that they will appeal the decision to the Illinois Supreme Court.
An attorney for two voters objecting to Emanuel's candidacy argued again last week that the Democrat doesn't meet the one-year residency requirement because he rented out his Chicago home and moved his family to Washington to work for President Barack Obama for nearly two years.
"If the house had not been abandoned by the whole family ... we wouldn't be here today," attorney Burt Odelson told the panel of judges, all three Democrats.
Odelson so far has had little luck trying to keep Emanuel off the Feb. 22 ballot. The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners and a Cook County judge have both ruled in favor of Emanuel, a former congressman, saying he didn't abandon his Chicago residency when he went to work at the White House.
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