Clarence, Sammy, & Gorsuch were the dissenters on SCOTUS decision to not let Trump use Nat'l Guard in Chicago [View all]

[Miles Archer]

Supreme Court doesn’t let Trump deploy National Guard in Chicago
Illinois and the city of Chicago urged the high court to "protect the basic structure of American federalism from unprecedented intrusion."

Dec. 23, 2025, 3:35 PM EST
By Jordan Rubin
Over dissent from Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, the Supreme Court declined to let the Trump administration immediately deploy the National Guard in Chicago, in the latest high court test of Donald Trump’s sweeping claims of authority in his second term.

In an unsigned order on Tuesday, the court said that at this stage in the litigation, the government couldn’t carry its burden to show that federal law lets the president federalize the Guard in his authority to protect federal personnel and property in Illinois. “At this preliminary stage, the Government has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois,” the court said in the order.

The administration had asked the justices to lift an order from a federal judge that blocked deployment in October. After an appellate panel declined to disturb that order, the administration turned to the high court, as it has done in dozens of cases this year, often successfully.

Though Tuesday’s order is a provisional one that doesn’t mark the end of this litigation, it nonetheless stands out as a high-profile loss for the administration before the justices.