Judge to rule on National Guard lawsuit filed by Illinois and Chicago at Thursday hearing

A judge is about to rule on a lawsuit filed by the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago seeking to prevent the deployment of the National Guard by the federal government despite their objections.

A hearing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois began at 11 a.m. PT. Judge April M. Perry set strict limits on the structure of the proceedings: Each side will have 10 minutes for opening statements, then they can ask questions, then each side will have 15 minutes for closing arguments before rendering their decision.

Irv Miller, a CBS News legal analyst in Chicago, said there were three possible outcomes for the hearing. First, the judge could tell the government that it cannot deploy the National Guard and must leave. Second, the judge could rule that the president was acting within his authority and the guard could stay and do as he wishes. Third, it could decide that guards can stay temporarily, but impose significant restrictions on their actions and autonomy.

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Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul claims in the complaint filed Monday that “defendants’ deployment of federalized troops to Illinois is patently unlawful.” It continued: “Plaintiffs ask this court to stop the illegal, dangerous, and unconstitutional federalization of members of the United States National Guard, including those of the Illinois National Guard. Texas National Guard“.

The judge initially declined to grant an emergency temporary restraining order in the hours after the suit was filed, instead giving the federal government until Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. CT to file its response.

They did it with moments to sparein a 59-page filing that argues that President Trump has the legal authority to deploy the troops and that state objections should not block the operation.

Federal government lawyers also argued that courts should show “great deference” when reviewing a president’s judgment, saying it falls within the authority granted to the executive branch by the Constitution and statutes.

Mr. Trump said that Chicago is “out of control” to justify sending in the National Guard, and his administration and the Department of Homeland Security have asserted that federal agents and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement need protection from protesters.

Raoul said at a news conference Monday after the suit was filed that the only situation “out of control” in the city or state is that of ICE agents themselves, whose overreach he said creates a pretext for a military deployment, and cited Mr. Trump’s own statements that he wants to use U.S. cities as military training grounds and said Chicago “is about to find out why they call it the Department of Defense.” War”.

Speaking at a separate event before the hearing began Thursday, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson lamented the need for a trial.

“It’s a sad state of America when journalists have to go to court to avoid getting shot by the federal government,” Johnson said. “That we have to go to court so that teachers can manage their classrooms and students can enter them safely and we can protect them from chemical agents. That we have to go to court to protect the people of our city.”

Charlie DeMar

contributed to this report.