Overview
- The court left in place lower-court orders that prevent deploying federalized Guard units in the Chicago area while litigation continues.
- The majority said the government failed to identify authority allowing the military to execute the laws in Illinois at this stage.
- The order suggested that “regular forces” likely means the standing U.S. military and that Guard federalization likely applies only where the military could legally enforce laws.
- Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch dissented, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurred in the result on narrower grounds.
- Illinois and Chicago had previously won a temporary restraining order from Judge April Perry, with the 7th Circuit largely upholding it, as the administration federalized about 300 Illinois and 400 Texas Guard members for potential use near an ICE facility.