MICHELE NORRIS, Host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris.
MELISSA BLOCK, Host:
From Chicago, NPR's David Schaper reports.
DAVID SCHAPER: Emanuel had a sizable lead in most polls, but now Emanuel must step up his fight just to get his name listed on next month's ballot.
RAHM EMANUEL: How are you guys? How's everybody doing?
SCHAPER: In a hastily called news conference this afternoon, Emanuel said he will appeal today's ruling to the Illinois Supreme Court.
EMANUEL: And I have no doubt that we will, in the end, prevail at this effort. As my father always used to say: Nothing's ever easy in life. So nothing's ever easy. So this is just one turn in the road.
SCHAPER: In December, the Chicago Board of Elections ruled in Emanuel's favor, placing his name on the ballot, and when the challengers took the case to state court, a just ruled in Emanuel's favor, too. But on appeal, the higher court reversed those earlier rulings.
DAVID FRANKLIN: And the appeals court decision today strikes me, on a first read, as legally defensible but somewhat strained.
SCHAPER: David Franklin is a law professor and elections law expert at Chicago's DePaul University. He says the appellate court is applying two standards to Emanuel, agreeing on the one hand that he did maintain a legal domicile in Chicago.
FRANKLIN: So he's clearly qualified to vote in the mayoral election, and the Court of Appeals agreed with that in its decision today, but it said that to be a candidate, you have to have something more than just domicile, which is to say you have to actually live in Chicago for a year prior to the election. That he clearly didn't do.
SCHAPER: David Schaper, NPR News, Chicago.