The Good Sense of the Illinois Supreme Court
CommentsI have absolutely no opinion about any of the candidates for mayor of Chicago on the merits. But largely for the reasons Richard Hasen suggests, I think the Illinois Supreme Court was clearly correct to reinstate Rahm Emmanuel. Essentially, I think that election rules should (where ambiguous) always be interpreted to permit the voters to decide where possible. So it would be one thing if Emmanuel clearly didn’t qualify — wise or not (and I don’t really see the point of ex ante residency requirements) rules are rules. But, in this case, if anything Emmanuel has the stronger argument — a long-term resident who still owns property and leaves for a temporary job? That sounds like a “resident” to me, even without getting to the rule that holdings that preserve democratic choice are to be preferred to rules that restrict it. I really don’t know what the lower court was doing.