Chicago, October 7: The state of Illinois and the city of Chicago filed lawsuits on Monday against President Donald Trump, seeking to block his administration’s deployment of federalized National Guard troops to the city. The legal challenge came as hundreds of National Guard troops from Texas began heading toward Chicago under federal orders.
The lawsuits mark a major escalation in the standoff between the Trump administration and Democratic-led states and cities over the President’s use of military forces in domestic law enforcement. Trump, in turn, warned that he could invoke the Insurrection Act of 1792, a rarely used law that allows the President to deploy the military to suppress civil unrest — even over objections from local governments.
Illinois’ legal action follows Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth’s weekend order placing 300 Illinois National Guard members under federal control and mobilizing an additional 400 Texas Guard troops for deployment in Chicago.
During Monday’s court hearing, U.S. government lawyers confirmed that Texas National Guard troops were already en route, even as Illinois sought a temporary restraining order to halt the mobilization. Later that day, Trump issued a new memorandum reaffirming the federal call-up of 300 Illinois Guard members.
U.S. District Judge April Perry permitted the deployment to proceed while the federal government prepares its response, setting a Wednesday midnight deadline for its filing.
The Illinois lawsuit followed a federal court ruling in Oregon on Sunday, which temporarily blocked the Trump administration from sending National Guard forces to Portland.
Trump Threatens to Invoke the Insurrection Act
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said he was prepared to invoke the Insurrection Act if necessary.
“I’d do it if it was necessary. So far, it hasn’t been necessary. But we have an Insurrection Act for a reason. If people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure, I’d do that,” Trump said.
In a later interview with Newsmax, the President referred to the unrest in Portland, Oregon, calling it “pure insurrection” and asserting that the situation justified the use of the Act.
The Insurrection Act has been invoked only sparingly in U.S. history, most recently by President George H. W. Bush in 1992 at the request of California’s governor to quell riots in Los Angeles following the acquittal of police officers in the beating of Rodney King.
Democratic States Push Back
Democratic leaders nationwide have condemned the President’s move as an illegal attempt to militarize American cities. The White House has defended the deployments, claiming they are necessary to protect federal facilities and personnel from “violent riots and lawlessness.”
The Illinois lawsuit alleges that Trump’s decision rests on a “flimsy pretext” — namely, that an ICE facility near Chicago requires protection from protesters.
Governor J.B. Pritzker accused Trump of political grandstanding and said the move dangerously escalates tensions.
“Donald Trump is using our service members as political props and as pawns in his illegal effort to militarize our nation’s cities,” Pritzker said at a press conference.
“His deranged depiction of Chicago as a hellhole, a war zone, and the worst city in the world is complete nonsense.”
Pritzker also condemned federal officers already operating in Chicago, claiming they had fired tear gas and rubber bullets at peaceful demonstrators, leaving citizens — including children — traumatized and detained.
Trump responded sharply, asserting that Chicago’s leaders had lost control of the city.
“It’s probably worse than almost any city in the world,” Trump said. “You could go to Afghanistan, you can go to a lot of different places, and they probably marvel at how much crime we have.”
With lawsuits now filed in Illinois, Oregon, California, and Washington, D.C., courts are being called upon to decide whether Trump’s federal deployment of military forces inside U.S. cities constitutes an overreach of presidential power.
— Reported by Nate Raymond and Dietrich Knauth in New York, and Emily Schmall in Chicago; Additional reporting by Brad Brooks; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Donna Bryson, Chizu Nomiyama, Alexia Garamfalvi, Aurora Ellis, and Lincoln Feast.
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