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Illinois officials filed a lawsuit Monday to stop the Trump administration from deploying federalized National Guard troops to Chicago, arguing that the move is unconstitutional and represents a dangerous overreach of presidential power.
The complaint, filed in federal court by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on behalf of the state and the city of Chicago, names President Donald Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll as defendants. It seeks an immediate injunction blocking what the filing calls an “unlawful military occupation” of Illinois.
“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military — particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor,” the Illinois Attorney General’s Office wrote in the 42-page filing.
The lawsuit argues that the administration’s federalization and deployment of National Guard troops in Illinois violates the Tenth Amendment, which reserves police powers to the states. It warns that the president’s actions “subject Illinois to serious and irreparable harm,” including the erosion of public trust, economic damage and the potential to inflame unrest rather than quell it.
“The deployment of federalized National Guard, including from another state, infringes on Illinois’s sovereignty and right to self-governance,” the suit says. “It will cause only more unrest, harming community relations and depressing business activity and tourism.”
The legal challenge follows two rulings over the weekend from U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut in Oregon, temporarily blocking the Trump administration from sending federalized California National Guard troops — or any other state’s troops — into Portland. Immergut, a Trump appointee, wrote that “this country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs.”
Illinois officials said their lawsuit raises similar constitutional concerns, accusing the White House of trying to federalize state military forces for political purposes rather than genuine threats to public safety.
“The Federalization Order’s deployment of federalized military forces to protect federal personnel and property from ‘violent demonstrations’ that are ‘likely to occur’ represents the exact type of intrusion on state power that is at the heart of the Tenth Amendment,” the filing states.
The lawsuit seeks a court declaration that the federalization and deployment of the National Guard — whether from Illinois or another state — in the absence of a formal insurrection or request from state officials, is “unconstitutional and unlawful.”
The White House, Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The court fight in Illinois marks the latest in a growing wave of legal challenges from Democratic-led states over the Trump administration’s increasingly aggressive use of the National Guard to police domestic unrest. Over the weekend, Oregon and California officials jointly sued to block federalized troop deployments to Portland.
President Trump has defended his actions as necessary to “protect federal assets and personnel” from violent protests, framing the deployments as part of a broader crackdown on crime in Democratic-led cities.
But state officials argue the president’s escalating use of military force against domestic demonstrations is both unconstitutional and politically motivated. “This isn’t law enforcement,” one senior Illinois official said privately. “It’s a show of force against cities the president doesn’t control.”
