The Supreme Court ruled yesterday Friday that ex-convicts should not be allowed to hold municipal office.

That takes former 25th-Ward Alderman Ambrosio Medrano off the ballot.

Surrounded by a somber crowd of supporters at his Pilsen campaign headquarters, Medrano called the ruling a travesty of justice.

Medrano: “I feel I’ve paid my debt to society. I believe many people in my community have felt that I’ve paid my debt to society. If they didn’t, I would not have been able to collect the signatures that I needed to be on the ballot in the first place.”

Medrano says he’ll appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, but it won’t be in time for Tuesday’s election.

In the 1990s, then-25th Ward Alderman Medrano and then-15th Ward Alderman Virgil Jones were convicted in the Silver Shovel scandal.

The state court ruling leaves a gap in the highly contested 25th Ward race, but incumbent Alderman Danny Solis still faces a couple of other solid challenges.

Medrano says he’ll endorse one of those challengers later today.