The state of Illinois and the city of Chicago filed a federal lawsuit on Monday seeking to stop President Donald Trump’s move to deploy federalized National Guard troops to the city, escalating a fierce confrontation between the White House and Democratic-led states over the domestic use of military forces.
The lawsuit follows an order issued over the weekend by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to bring 300 Illinois National Guard members under federal control and to deploy an additional 400 Texas National Guard troops to Chicago.
The Pentagon said the move was necessary to protect federal property and personnel amid what it described as rising unrest in the city.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson called the move unlawful and politically motivated, accusing the administration of using military force to intimidate local governments.
“Donald Trump is using our service members as political props and pawns in his illegal effort to militarize our nation’s cities,” Pritzker said at a press conference. He added that heavily armed federal agents were already operating in Chicago, using tear gas and rubber bullets on peaceful protesters.
Despite Illinois’ request for a temporary restraining order, U.S. District Judge April Perry allowed the federal government to proceed with the deployment while the court reviews the case. She set a Wednesday midnight deadline for the Justice Department to respond.
Trump, meanwhile, intensified the standoff by threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1792, a rarely used federal law allowing the president to deploy troops for domestic law enforcement.
“I’d do it if it was necessary,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “If people were being killed and courts or governors were holding us up, sure, I’d do that.”
In a separate interview with Newsmax, Trump cited ongoing protests in Portland, Oregon, where a federal judge on Sunday temporarily blocked troop deployments, as justification for potential use of the law. “That’s pure insurrection,” he said.
The Insurrection Act has been invoked sparingly in modern history, most recently by President George H.W. Bush in 1992 at California’s request to quell riots in Los Angeles.
Legal experts say Trump’s latest actions mark an unprecedented expansion of presidential authority over the National Guard, which typically answers to state governors unless federalized.
Courts in California and Oregon have already issued preliminary rulings suggesting Trump may have exceeded his powers.
The Illinois lawsuit claims the president’s decision rests on a “flimsy pretext” that an ICE facility near Chicago requires military protection. Pritzker dismissed Trump’s justification, accusing him of exaggerating crime levels in the city for political gain.
“Donald Trump’s deranged depiction of Chicago as a war zone is just complete nonsense,” he said.
Trump fired back, saying Chicago’s leaders had “lost control” and comparing the city’s violence to that of conflict zones. “It’s probably worse than almost any city in the world. You could go to Afghanistan, and they’d marvel at how much crime we have,” he said.
The case adds to a growing list of legal challenges from Democratic states and cities opposing what they describe as Trump’s unconstitutional militarization of domestic law enforcement.
Courts have yet to issue a final ruling in any of the disputes.
Source: Reuters
Written By Rodney Mbua
