A court in Illinois ruled Monday that President Barack Obama's former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is ineligible to run for mayor of Chicago in next month's election.
The appeals court ruled 2-1 against Emanuel, who has raised more than $10 million in his mayoral bid, concluding that he has not lived in the city for one year prior to the election, and that he is not exempt from that rule.
"We conclude that the candidate neither meets 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 court wrote in its decision.
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"We reverse the circuit court's judgment... and order that the candidate's name be excluded (or, if necessary, removed) from the ballot for Chicago's February 22, 2011, mayoral election," wrote judge Thomas Hoffman, who was joined by judge Shelvin Louise Marie Hall in the majority.
Emanuel was expected to hold a press conference Monday afternoon to respond. He is expected to immediately appeal to the state's highest court, in hopes of getting his name back on the ballot before the election.
Emanuel would find grounds for appeal in the minority opinion of judge Bertina Lampkin, who voted in favor of Emanuel.
Lampkin wrote that the decision "is ill-reasoned and unfair to the candidate, voters, and those of us who are charged with applying the law." She said there is no case law supporting the decision.
"The majority's decision disenfranchises not just this particular candidate, but every voter in Chicago who would consider voting for him," Lampkin wrote.
"In order to have changed one's residence, a person, both in fact and intention, must have abandoned the former residence and acquired a new one by actual residence with the intent to make it a permanent home," she wrote.
Emanuel, 51, resigned as Obama's chief of staff October 1 and a short time later announced his candidacy to replace retiring Chicago mayor Richard Daley.
