16 October 2025, USA, Washington Dc: US National Guard soldiers walk up the steps to the Lincoln Memorial in the early morning. Photo: Kay Nietfeld/dpa (Photo by Kay Nietfeld/picture alliance via Getty Images)
A 7th Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled unanimously Thursday to maintain the district court’s block on National Guard deployment in Chicago.
The Trump administration, per the opinion, regularly hurt its own case. Its crowing about its deportation successes in Chicago undermined its supposed need for the Guard to support other federal law enforcement, and its calling up of the Texas Guard to invade Chicago — “an incursion on Illinois’s sovereignty” — helped Chicago prove its injury.
This case is likely bound for the Supreme Court.
Read the opinion here:
“Political opposition is not rebellion,” the opinion said. “A protest does not become a rebellion merely because the protestors advocate for myriad legal or policy changes, are well organized, call for significant changes to the structure of the U.S. government, use civil disobedience as a form of protest, or exercise their Second Amendment right to carry firearms as the law currently allows. Nor does a protest become a rebellion merely because of sporadic and isolated incidents of unlawful activity or even violence committed by rogue participants in the protest.”
The Trump administration, per the opinion, regularly hurt its own case. Its crowing about its deportation successes in Chicago undermined its supposed need for the Guard to support other federal law enforcement, and its calling up of the Texas Guard to invade Chicago — “an incursion on Illinois’s sovereignty” — helped Chicago prove its injury.
This case is likely bound for the Supreme Court.
Read the opinion here:
The judges made once banal, now profound statements about the legitimacy of political protest, while Republican leaders regularly refer to peaceful protesters as “terrorists.”
“Political opposition is not rebellion,” the opinion said. “A protest does not become a rebellion merely because the protestors advocate for myriad legal or policy changes, are well organized, call for significant changes to the structure of the U.S. government, use civil disobedience as a form of protest, or exercise their Second Amendment right to carry firearms as the law currently allows. Nor does a protest become a rebellion merely because of sporadic and isolated incidents of unlawful activity or even violence committed by rogue participants in the protest.”
The Trump administration, per the opinion, regularly hurt its own case. Its crowing about its deportation successes in Chicago undermined its supposed need for the Guard to support other federal law enforcement, and its calling up of the Texas Guard to invade Chicago — “an incursion on Illinois’s sovereignty” — helped Chicago prove its injury.
This case is likely bound for the Supreme Court.
Read the opinion here:
In its Thursday opinion, the judges were much more supportive of the district court than their counterparts on the 9th Circuit, who are considering the administration’s appeal of an order blocking Guard deployments in Portland. Calling U.S. District Court Judge April Perry’s opinion “thorough,” the 7th Circuit panel also supported her decision to give Chicago’s on-the-ground reports more weight than the administration’s because the latter’s “omitted material information or were undermined by independent, objective evidence.”
The judges made once banal, now profound statements about the legitimacy of political protest, while Republican leaders regularly refer to peaceful protesters as “terrorists.”
“Political opposition is not rebellion,” the opinion said. “A protest does not become a rebellion merely because the protestors advocate for myriad legal or policy changes, are well organized, call for significant changes to the structure of the U.S. government, use civil disobedience as a form of protest, or exercise their Second Amendment right to carry firearms as the law currently allows. Nor does a protest become a rebellion merely because of sporadic and isolated incidents of unlawful activity or even violence committed by rogue participants in the protest.”
The Trump administration, per the opinion, regularly hurt its own case. Its crowing about its deportation successes in Chicago undermined its supposed need for the Guard to support other federal law enforcement, and its calling up of the Texas Guard to invade Chicago — “an incursion on Illinois’s sovereignty” — helped Chicago prove its injury.
This case is likely bound for the Supreme Court.
Read the opinion here:
The panel had previously handed down an administrative stay, letting Guard members in Illinois remain under federal control, but blocking their deployment.
In its Thursday opinion, the judges were much more supportive of the district court than their counterparts on the 9th Circuit, who are considering the administration’s appeal of an order blocking Guard deployments in Portland. Calling U.S. District Court Judge April Perry’s opinion “thorough,” the 7th Circuit panel also supported her decision to give Chicago’s on-the-ground reports more weight than the administration’s because the latter’s “omitted material information or were undermined by independent, objective evidence.”
The judges made once banal, now profound statements about the legitimacy of political protest, while Republican leaders regularly refer to peaceful protesters as “terrorists.”
“Political opposition is not rebellion,” the opinion said. “A protest does not become a rebellion merely because the protestors advocate for myriad legal or policy changes, are well organized, call for significant changes to the structure of the U.S. government, use civil disobedience as a form of protest, or exercise their Second Amendment right to carry firearms as the law currently allows. Nor does a protest become a rebellion merely because of sporadic and isolated incidents of unlawful activity or even violence committed by rogue participants in the protest.”
The Trump administration, per the opinion, regularly hurt its own case. Its crowing about its deportation successes in Chicago undermined its supposed need for the Guard to support other federal law enforcement, and its calling up of the Texas Guard to invade Chicago — “an incursion on Illinois’s sovereignty” — helped Chicago prove its injury.
This case is likely bound for the Supreme Court.
Read the opinion here:
The panel is composed of a Trump appointee, a Barack Obama appointee and a George H. W. Bush appointee.
The panel had previously handed down an administrative stay, letting Guard members in Illinois remain under federal control, but blocking their deployment.
In its Thursday opinion, the judges were much more supportive of the district court than their counterparts on the 9th Circuit, who are considering the administration’s appeal of an order blocking Guard deployments in Portland. Calling U.S. District Court Judge April Perry’s opinion “thorough,” the 7th Circuit panel also supported her decision to give Chicago’s on-the-ground reports more weight than the administration’s because the latter’s “omitted material information or were undermined by independent, objective evidence.”
The judges made once banal, now profound statements about the legitimacy of political protest, while Republican leaders regularly refer to peaceful protesters as “terrorists.”
“Political opposition is not rebellion,” the opinion said. “A protest does not become a rebellion merely because the protestors advocate for myriad legal or policy changes, are well organized, call for significant changes to the structure of the U.S. government, use civil disobedience as a form of protest, or exercise their Second Amendment right to carry firearms as the law currently allows. Nor does a protest become a rebellion merely because of sporadic and isolated incidents of unlawful activity or even violence committed by rogue participants in the protest.”
The Trump administration, per the opinion, regularly hurt its own case. Its crowing about its deportation successes in Chicago undermined its supposed need for the Guard to support other federal law enforcement, and its calling up of the Texas Guard to invade Chicago — “an incursion on Illinois’s sovereignty” — helped Chicago prove its injury.
This case is likely bound for the Supreme Court.
Read the opinion here:
In other words: “The administration remains barred from deploying the National Guard of the United States within Illinois.”
The panel is composed of a Trump appointee, a Barack Obama appointee and a George H. W. Bush appointee.
The panel had previously handed down an administrative stay, letting Guard members in Illinois remain under federal control, but blocking their deployment.
In its Thursday opinion, the judges were much more supportive of the district court than their counterparts on the 9th Circuit, who are considering the administration’s appeal of an order blocking Guard deployments in Portland. Calling U.S. District Court Judge April Perry’s opinion “thorough,” the 7th Circuit panel also supported her decision to give Chicago’s on-the-ground reports more weight than the administration’s because the latter’s “omitted material information or were undermined by independent, objective evidence.”
The judges made once banal, now profound statements about the legitimacy of political protest, while Republican leaders regularly refer to peaceful protesters as “terrorists.”
“Political opposition is not rebellion,” the opinion said. “A protest does not become a rebellion merely because the protestors advocate for myriad legal or policy changes, are well organized, call for significant changes to the structure of the U.S. government, use civil disobedience as a form of protest, or exercise their Second Amendment right to carry firearms as the law currently allows. Nor does a protest become a rebellion merely because of sporadic and isolated incidents of unlawful activity or even violence committed by rogue participants in the protest.”
The Trump administration, per the opinion, regularly hurt its own case. Its crowing about its deportation successes in Chicago undermined its supposed need for the Guard to support other federal law enforcement, and its calling up of the Texas Guard to invade Chicago — “an incursion on Illinois’s sovereignty” — helped Chicago prove its injury.
This case is likely bound for the Supreme Court.
Read the opinion here:
“…the facts do not justify the President’s actions in Illinois,” even when giving him “substantial deference,” the opinion said.
In other words: “The administration remains barred from deploying the National Guard of the United States within Illinois.”
The panel is composed of a Trump appointee, a Barack Obama appointee and a George H. W. Bush appointee.
The panel had previously handed down an administrative stay, letting Guard members in Illinois remain under federal control, but blocking their deployment.
In its Thursday opinion, the judges were much more supportive of the district court than their counterparts on the 9th Circuit, who are considering the administration’s appeal of an order blocking Guard deployments in Portland. Calling U.S. District Court Judge April Perry’s opinion “thorough,” the 7th Circuit panel also supported her decision to give Chicago’s on-the-ground reports more weight than the administration’s because the latter’s “omitted material information or were undermined by independent, objective evidence.”
The judges made once banal, now profound statements about the legitimacy of political protest, while Republican leaders regularly refer to peaceful protesters as “terrorists.”
“Political opposition is not rebellion,” the opinion said. “A protest does not become a rebellion merely because the protestors advocate for myriad legal or policy changes, are well organized, call for significant changes to the structure of the U.S. government, use civil disobedience as a form of protest, or exercise their Second Amendment right to carry firearms as the law currently allows. Nor does a protest become a rebellion merely because of sporadic and isolated incidents of unlawful activity or even violence committed by rogue participants in the protest.”
The Trump administration, per the opinion, regularly hurt its own case. Its crowing about its deportation successes in Chicago undermined its supposed need for the Guard to support other federal law enforcement, and its calling up of the Texas Guard to invade Chicago — “an incursion on Illinois’s sovereignty” — helped Chicago prove its injury.
This case is likely bound for the Supreme Court.
Read the opinion here:
“…the facts do not justify the President’s actions in Illinois,” even when giving him “substantial deference,” the opinion said.
In other words: “The administration remains barred from deploying the National Guard of the United States within Illinois.”
The panel is composed of a Trump appointee, a Barack Obama appointee and a George H. W. Bush appointee.
The panel had previously handed down an administrative stay, letting Guard members in Illinois remain under federal control, but blocking their deployment.
In its Thursday opinion, the judges were much more supportive of the district court than their counterparts on the 9th Circuit, who are considering the administration’s appeal of an order blocking Guard deployments in Portland. Calling U.S. District Court Judge April Perry’s opinion “thorough,” the 7th Circuit panel also supported her decision to give Chicago’s on-the-ground reports more weight than the administration’s because the latter’s “omitted material information or were undermined by independent, objective evidence.”
The judges made once banal, now profound statements about the legitimacy of political protest, while Republican leaders regularly refer to peaceful protesters as “terrorists.”
“Political opposition is not rebellion,” the opinion said. “A protest does not become a rebellion merely because the protestors advocate for myriad legal or policy changes, are well organized, call for significant changes to the structure of the U.S. government, use civil disobedience as a form of protest, or exercise their Second Amendment right to carry firearms as the law currently allows. Nor does a protest become a rebellion merely because of sporadic and isolated incidents of unlawful activity or even violence committed by rogue participants in the protest.”
The Trump administration, per the opinion, regularly hurt its own case. Its crowing about its deportation successes in Chicago undermined its supposed need for the Guard to support other federal law enforcement, and its calling up of the Texas Guard to invade Chicago — “an incursion on Illinois’s sovereignty” — helped Chicago prove its injury.
