Overview
- The 6–3 decision leaves a lower-court injunction in place as litigation continues, with Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch dissenting and Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurring separately.
- The court characterized presidential power to use military forces for law enforcement as limited to exceptional circumstances and said the government had not identified such authority at this stage.
- The dispute turns on whether the statute’s phrase “regular forces” refers to the standing U.S. military, a question the justices previously asked the parties to brief.
- U.S. District Judge April Perry first blocked the deployment on Oct. 9, and a Seventh Circuit panel declined to lift her order after questioning the administration’s claims about protests at an ICE facility in Broadview.
- The administration had federalized about 300 Illinois Guard members and brought in roughly 400 from Texas for Chicago, some of whom were later sent home, and related challenges in Oregon, California and Washington, D.C., remain pending.