Judge blocks Trump’s Guard deployment in Chicago

Chicago protests against President Donald Trump's National Guard deployment

(Image credit: Scott Olson / Getty Images)

What happened

A federal judge in Chicago Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump from federalizing the Illinois National Guard or deploying any Guard units in the state, saying there was growing evidence that the administration’s “perceptions of events are simply unreliable” and the addition of troops to anti-ICE protests would “only add fuel to the fire” that Trump officials “themselves have started.”

Who said what

At Thrusday's hearing, U.S. District Judge April Perry pressed Justice Department lawyer Eric Hamilton on the scope of Trump’s Guard mission in Illinois. “I am very much struggling to figure out where this would ever stop,” she said after he would not commit to the deployment remaining aimed at protecting federal property and federal agents. Hamilton argued that Trump has an expansive, non-reviewable right to send in the National Guard in times of rebellion or unmanaged lawlessness. Perry, appointed by President Joe Biden, said she had “seen no credible evidence that there is a danger of a rebellion” in Illinois.

State and local officials cheered the decision. “Donald Trump is not a king — and his administration is not above the law,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) said on X. Perry’s bench ruling was the latest pushback from federal courts to Trump’s use of federal forces against immigrants and protesters. Last weekend, a Trump-appointed judge in Portland blocked his Guard deployment to Portland.

But a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday “seemed poised to permit Trump to deploy the guard in Oregon,” Politico said. The “dueling court hearings vividly illustrated the different approaches” from judges to Trump’s “domestic use of the military over the objections of local authorities,” and this 9th Circuit panel — especially its two Trump appointees — maintained that the president “deserves extremely broad latitude in this area.”

What next?

Perry said her temporary restraining order would last at least 14 days and she would issue a written ruling this afternoon. It was “not immediately clear” what would happen with the roughly 200 Texas National Guard members and 300 Illinois troops “already mobilized and deployed” outside Chicago, said The New York Times. The Trump administration was expected to appeal.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.