Members of the Texas National Guard stand guard at a military reserve training center October 7, 2025 in Elwood, Illinois.
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The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow the president to deploy National Guard troops to Illinois after lower courts blocked the deployment.
In the Justice Department’s appeal filed Friday, Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that troops are needed in the Chicago area to “prevent continued and intolerable risks to the lives and safety” of federal agents. The restraining order issued Thursday by a federal judge in Illinois, Sauer said, “inappropriately encroaches on the President’s authority and unnecessarily endangers federal personnel and assets.”
Trump argued that Chicago — and several other Democratic-led cities — were lawless and needed military intervention to quell protests and protect federal immigration facilities.
He federalized the state’s National Guard against the wishes of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker earlier this month. Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott also sent several hundred troops from his state to the Democratic-led state.
