President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops within Illinois will likely remain on hold through mid-November after the U.S. Supreme Court sought more information from lawyers Wednesday.
The request ended 12 days of silence from the justices. The Trump administration asked the high court on Oct. 17 to undo an order from U.S. District Judge April Perry that’s blocked the troop deployment since Oct. 9.
Perry’s order was originally temporary and set to expire after two weeks. However, Justice Department lawyers agreed last week to let it stand until a final judgment in her courtroom, and pending the Supreme Court’s review.
Litigation around National Guard deployment in Illinois, Oregon and California has centered on a federal law that allows the president to call into federal service members of any state’s National Guard if there is an invasion or rebellion — or if the president is “unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.”
In its order seeking additional briefing Wednesday, the justices asked “whether the term ‘regular forces’ refers to the regular forces of the United States military, and, if so, how that interpretation affects the operation” of the law.
The justices set deadlines for the briefs that last through Nov. 17, and the high court is unlikely to rule in the meantime.
That means Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in Illinois — already blocked for 20 days — will likely be blocked for at least 19 more.
Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth early this month ordered 300 members of the Illinois National Guard and 400 members of the Texas National Guard into a “protective mission” meant to safeguard federal personnel and property around Chicago.
Illinois and Chicago sued Oct. 6 and asked Perry to block the deployment. She did so three days later, finding that the Trump administration’s “perception of events” around Chicago is “simply unreliable.”
Perry was nominated to the bench in 2024 by President Joe Biden.
A three-judge panel from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals mostly upheld Perry’s ruling. The three judges were nominated by Presidents George H.W. Bush, Barack Obama and Trump.