President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday urgently petitioned the Supreme Court to allow the deployment of the National Guard to Chicago, arguing that a lower court ruling blocking the move jeopardizes the safety of federal personnel.
The appeal comes a day after the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals refused to halt a district court decision that prevents the President from sending military troops to the area amid ongoing protests.
In the administration’s application, Solicitor General John Sauer contended that letting the lower court’s order stand would “immediately increase the risk that federal personnel in Chicago may be seriously harmed by violent anti-ICE agitators.”
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Sauer further argued that the ruling “deprives DHS officers of the protections that the President sought to give them from ongoing violence, prevents the Guard from ensuring the enforcement of federal law, and puts lives and property in danger.” He characterized the Seventh Circuit’s position as “untenable,” asserting that it effectively places the court in control of the military chain of command and “judicially micromanaging the exercise of the President’s Commander-in-Chief powers.”
The Solicitor General detailed instances of violence against federal officers in Chicago, citing threats, assaults, a pre-planned ambush, vehicle ramming, and being shot at with improvised weapons, including a reported “$10,000 bounty for the murder of a senior federal official.”
Sauer also highlighted a contrast with the Ninth Circuit, which in June blocked a similar lower court order that had prevented Trump from sending troops to Los Angeles. The administration also noted that similar legal challenges are underway regarding the “federalizing” of the Oregon National Guard to address protests in Portland.
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However, the Seventh Circuit panel, in its Thursday decision, stated there was “insufficient evidence that protest activity in Illinois has significantly impeded the ability of federal officers to execute federal immigration laws.”
The panel drew a sharp distinction between protest and rebellion, writing, “Political opposition is not rebellion… A protest does not become a rebellion merely because the protestors advocate for myriad legal or policy changes, are well organized, call for significant changes to the structure of the U.S. government, use civil disobedience as a form of protest, or exercise their Second Amendment right to carry firearms as the law currently allows.”
The Supreme Court is now poised to decide whether the President has the authority to deploy the National Guard in Chicago despite the judicial branch’s block.
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