The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has ruled against President Donald Trump’s plans to federalize and send 300 Illinois National Guardsmen to the sanctuary city of Chicago to help protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from violent rioters.
In October, Trump had sought to deploy the National Guard to assist ICE agents, but a federal judge, appointed by former President Joe Biden, blocked the effort with a temporary restraining order.
When the Trump administration asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to stay the judge’s order, the panel of judges denied the administration’s plea.
That is when the Trump administration asked SCOTUS to stay the federal judge’s order so National Guardsmen could be deployed to Chicago.
On Tuesday, SCOTUS ruled in a 6-3 decision that the Trump administration “has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois,” and therefore the administration’s application for a stay was denied:
At this preliminary stage, the Government has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois. The President has not invoked a statute that provides an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act. Instead, he relies on inherent constitutional authority that, according to the Government, allows him to use the military to protect federal personnel and property. But the Government also claims—consistent with the longstanding view of the Executive Branch—that performing such protective functions does not constitute “execut[ing] the laws” within the meaning of the Posse Comitatus Act. If that is correct, it is hard to see how performing those functions could constitute “execut[ing] the laws” under §12406(3). (“This Court does not lightly assume that Congress silently attaches different meanings to the same term in the same or related statutes”). Thus, at least in this posture, the Government has not carried its burden to show that §12406(3) permits the President to federalize the Guard in the exercise of inherent authority to protect federal personnel and property in Illinois. We need not and do not address the reviewability of findings made by the President under §12406(3) or any other statute. The application for stay is denied. [Emphasis added]
Justices John Roberts, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett, and Ketanji Brown Jackson seemingly backed the unsigned order while Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a concurring opinion.
Justices Samuel Alito wrote a dissenting opinion, which Justice Clarence Thomas joined. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a dissenting opinion as well.
“Whatever one may think about the current administration’s enforcement of the immigration laws or the way ICE has conducted its operations, the protection of federal officers from potentially lethal attacks should not be thwarted,” Alito wrote in his dissenting opinion. “I therefore respectfully dissent.”
As Breitbart News has chronicled for months, violent rioters have descended on an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, where agents have not only been attacked, but rioters have chanted “Kill ICE!” and “Shoot ICE!”
The case is Trump v. Illinois, No. 25A443 in the Supreme Court of the United States.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter here.
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