Supreme Court Rejects Trump’s Bid to Deploy National Guard in Illinois

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to let the Trump administration deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area while a legal challenge goes forward, a rare emergency-docket defeat for President Donald Trump, CBS News and NBC News reported.

The unsigned order left in place a judge’s decision blocking the deployment. CBS News said the vote appears to be 6-3, with Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissenting. NBC News noted that the court’s three liberal justices joined three of its conservatives in the majority. The court said that “at least in this posture” the administration had not met its burden to show that Title 10, the law Trump invoked, allows him to federalize the Guard “in the exercise of inherent authority to protect federal personnel and property in Illinois.”

NBC News reported that the court ruled on a threshold question, finding that the law’s reference to “regular forces” lets the president call up the Guard only if regular military forces are unable to restore order. NBC News said the court also found the government had “failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois.” The administration had argued that Chicago was in chaos and that troops were needed to protect federal immigration agents.

The case began in early October, when Trump federalized the Illinois Guard after protests at a Chicago-area immigration processing center in Broadview, following an enforcement campaign called Operation Midway Blitz, CBS News reported. Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, objected, and Illinois and Chicago sued. U.S. District Judge April Perry blocked the deployment, writing that “there has been no showing that the civil power has failed.” A unanimous three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit later allowed Guard members to remain in federal service, CBS News said.

Reaction split along party lines. Pritzker called the ruling “a big win for Illinois and American democracy,” and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson praised the court for “rebuking President Trump’s attempts to militarize and demonize our city,” CBS News reported. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said “nothing in today’s ruling detracts from that core agenda,” according to both outlets.

The administration has used federalized Guard troops in Washington, Los Angeles, Memphis, Portland and Chicago and has threatened to send them to Baltimore and San Francisco, CBS News reported. NBC News wrote that although the decision is preliminary and involves only Chicago, it will likely bolster similar challenges elsewhere by setting new limits on the president’s authority.

The ruling came after a series of high-profile administration wins at the court this year, NBC News noted. It did not decide the case itself, which continues in the lower courts.