ANOTHER VICTORY FOR THE RULE OF LAW. Our Founders' vision lives on. Don't tell me that DJT is a "conservative." Conservatives believe in limited government. TRUMP is a fascist. That's what I told our St. Johns County Commission after TRUMP's January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. Sady, I was right. From Chicago Sun-Times:
Judge grants a partial temporary restraining order on National Guard deployment in Illinois
In issuing her decision, U.S. District Judge April Perry said, “I simply cannot credit [the Trump administration’s] declarations to the extent they contradict state and local law enforcement. … DHS’ perception of events are unreliable.”
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Arguments over a state lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration’s deployment of National Guard troops into Illinois have concluded in federal court, and proceedings are in recess.
U.S. District Judge April Perry ordered lawyers representing the state, which is seeking a temporary restraining order against Trump’s National Guard deployment, and the Justice Department to return to her courtroom at 4:30 p.m.
The hearing comes after National Guard troops could be seen on the ground near the Broadview ICE facility Thursday morning.
Illinois and Chicago sued the Trump administration Monday over the deployment, and their attorneys tried to persuade Perry to immediately block the troops. Instead, the judge called for legal filings and set the stage for Thursday’s hearing.
Gov. JB Pritzker announced Sunday that President Donald Trump had ordered 400 members of the Texas National Guard to deploy into Illinois, Oregon and elsewhere. He also said that 300 Illinois National Guard troops were being federalized against his “vigorous objections.”
The lawsuit set up one of the biggest legal clashes yet between the Republican president and Illinois’ Democratic leaders. Trump called Wednesday for the jailing of Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson for “failing to protect ICE.”
Pritzker, a likely 2028 presidential candidate, responded by urging the president to “come and get me.”
Illinois’ request: Illinois wants U.S. District Judge April Perry to block the deployment of National Guard or military troops in the state.
What is the law? President Donald Trump has been citing a law that allows him to call into federal service members of any state National Guard if there is an invasion, rebellion or if the president is “unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.”
Who is the judge? April Perry joined the bench in November after her nomination by then-President Joe Biden. Though Biden had previously nominated her to be Chicago’s top federal prosecutor, that bid was blocked by then-U.S. Sen. JD Vance.
A federal judge said she is partially granting the state’s request to block the Trump administration’s deployment of National Guard units in the Chicago area as part of an immigration enforcement action.
After hearing arguments from lawyers representing the state and the Justice Department, U.S. District Judge April Perry said she will grant “in part” a state request for a temporary restraining order against troop deployment.
Perry said her decision comes down to a “credibility determination.”
“I simply cannot credit [the Trump administration’s] declarations to the extent they contradict state and local law enforcement,” Perry said. “[The Department of Homeland Security’s] perception of events [is] simply unreliable.”
Perry pointed to other federal prosecutions or lawsuits in Chicago and said “in the last 48 hours, in four separate unrelated legal decisions from different neutral parties, they all cast significant doubt on DHS’ credibility and assessment of what is happening on the streets of Chicago.”
The Trump administration mobilized hundreds of National Guard members to protect federal agents and property over objections from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who sued on behalf of the state and city to block the move.
“I have seen no credible evidence that there is danger of rebellion in the state of Illinois,” the judge said.
Perry is still ruling and the details of her order are not yet known.
Arguments have concluded in the hearing over the state’s lawsuit against the Trump administration that seeks to block the deployment of National Guard units over Gov. JB Pritzker’s objections.
U.S. District Judge April Perry intends to reconvene in her courtroom at 4:30 p.m. with lawyers representing the state, which is seeking a temporary restraining order against the deployment, and Justice Department lawyers fighting that effort.
Before the court went into recess, Christopher Wells, the lead lawyer representing Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the Pritzker administration, summarized the state’s position that President Trump was acting maliciously with his push for National Guard troops in Illinois despite the governor’s objections.
“This case is replete with evidence of bad faith, of an abandonment of public virtue, of a lack of honest devotion to the public interest and of a grave risk of usurpation or wanton tyranny,” Wells said.
The Justice Department lawyer representing Trump, Eric Hamilton, reiterated that Trump’s judgment in this case is “unreviewable” and argued there’s “no possible irreparable injury from 500 members of the guard protecting federal property and personnel in a state of 13 million people.”
It’s unclear whether Perry will issue a decision from the bench later this afternoon.
U.S. District Judge April Perry asked Justice Department lawyer Eric Hamilton whether the president’s perceived inability to execute the law – a justification needed for Trump to mobilize the National Guard under federal law – was something “caused by the federal agents.”
Hamilton responded, “No, your honor.”
The judge then observed that the Broadview immigration enforcement processing facility had been the site of “nothing but peaceful prayer vigils” for 19 years. “And then,” Perry said, “CBP shows up and then suddenly things take a turn for the worse.”
Perry asked Hamilton whether the feds’ provoking protesters to the point federal law is unenforceable is something to be weighed under the National Guard mobilization law.
“No,” Hamilton said. “If that were true, the fact still remains that we are seeing sustained violence against federal personnel and property in Illinois.”
Singling out examples of violence the feds provided – claims of “slashed tires” and “keyed cars” – the judge said, “Some of this frankly sounds like a Carrie Underwood song.”
Hamilton shot back: “This is no Carrie Underwood song.”
He pointed to more serious incidents, including the claim of a bomb.
Perry asked what was in that alleged device, and Hamilton responded, “I don’t know.”
U.S. District Judge April Perry turned her questioning of a Justice Department lawyer toward statements President Trump has made about deploying National Guard troops to Illinois and asked whether he is relying on “completely invalid evidence.”
Perry said there appeared to be a “very large disconnect” between what Trump said on social media and in press conferences and what conditions are actually like on the ground in Illinois.
The judge zeroed in on the case of Ray Collins and Jocelyne Robledo, protesters at the Broadview ICE facility who were arrested while each was legally carrying a gun. In an unusual move, a federal grand jury refused to indict the couple.
The couple’s arrest was used, in part, as a justification by the Trump administration for National Guard units to help protect federal agents on the ground in the Chicago area.
But Perry noted how carrying a gun is a constitutionally protected right and that a grand jury didn’t support criminal charges against the couple.
“This indicates to me a certain lack of credibility,” Perry told the Justice Department lawyer.
With opening arguments over, U.S. District Judge April Perry pressed the Justice Department lawyer on whether the National Guard deployment that appears now to exceed 500 troops could increase and exactly what their duties would be.
Eric Hamilton, the lawyer representing the federal government, called plans for headcount and the troops’ use a “dynamic situation that could change.”
Hamilton went on to say that troops expected to be assigned at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse would be there at the request of the Federal Protective Services, a contention the judge said is “untrue. No one from the Federal Protective Service requested any National Guard troops.”
Perry also asked Hamilton what the troops would do.
He said they would “provide protection” but in a way that’s “distinct from law enforcement.” They would not be authorized to make arrests, he said.
Perry pressed Hamilton on whether troops would be “solving crime in Chicago,” and he answered, “Certainly, to an extent.”
The lead federal government lawyer justified President Trump’s deployment of National Guard units to Illinois because Chicago is experiencing what he called a “brazen new form of hostility from rioters targeting federal law enforcement.”
Department of Justice attorney Eric Hamilton told Judge April Perry that those objecting to the actions of federal immigration enforcement agents are “not protesters. They are the violent resistance to duly enacted immigration laws.”
Hamilton pointed to different examples of alleged violence against federal agents and said that was the basis for the mobilization of Guard units. Federal law allows that, he said, if there is “either a rebellion or a danger of a rebellion.”
Hamilton called the president’s decision to send in troops “unreviewable” and denied Illinois’ claim that the deployment is in retaliation to the sanctuary status of Illinois and Chicago.
“This federalization happened to respond to an urgent and serious ongoing threat to officer safety and to the protection of property,” he said.
The lead lawyer for Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office characterized President Trump’s decision to deploy National Guard units into Illinois without state support as a lawless act of “misbehavior.”
Before wrapping up his allotted time to present his opening argument, Christopher Wells took aim at what he characterized as the president’s unjustified deployment of National Guard units here.
“Troops are here. Tomorrow, they’re being sent to this courthouse,” Wells told Judge Perry.
“Take the president at his word, when it has been unfiltered by his attorney,” Wells said. “Because of the president’s words, what the president has done to Illinois is illegal and lawless.”
With Attorney General Kwame Raoul sitting in the front row, a lawyer representing the state of Illinois argued that the Trump administration’s mobilization of National Guard units over Gov. JB Pritzker’s objections upsets the “careful balance of our constitutional system” and must be stopped.
Christopher Wells opened his arguments for a temporary restraining order against Trump with a look back to the country’s founders.
“Rebellion. Invasion. Insurrection. War. These are heavy words,” Wells told U.S. District Judge April Perry. “The people who wrote our Constitution understood the weight of these words. The people who wrote our constitution had lived these words.”
The federal immigration enforcement action known as Operation Midway Blitz has boasted of 1,000 arrests, but Wells said there is no justification to warrant Trump’s deployment of National Guard units to help with that task.
“Where exactly is the problem?” he asked. “Where in Illinois are conditions so severe the president is unable to enforce federal law?”
As soon as Friday, National Guard units mobilized by President Trump could appear at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse unless U.S. District April Perry issues a temporary restraining order blocking their deployment.
But early today, Chief District Court Judge Virginia M. Kendall made clear she did not see a need for Guard units to be stationed outside the federal courthouse.
“At no point did I, nor did the Building Security Committee, authorize or request the National Guard’s assistance to secure the Dirksen Courthouse,“ Kendall said in a prepared statement.
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