Illinois filed a lawsuit Monday in an attempt to block the Trump administration from deploying federalized National Guard troops on the streets of Chicago.
“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 filing, which names President Donald Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll as defendants.
“The Trump administration’s illegal actions already have subjected and are subjecting Illinois to serious and irreparable harm,” the suit says.
NBC News has reached out to the White House, Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security for comment.
The legal action comes after a federal judge in Oregon issued two separate orders over the weekend temporarily blocking the Trump administration from sending federalized National Guard members from California — or any other state — to Portland, Oregon. Portland and Chicago are part of a wave of Democrat-run cities and states that Trump has targeted with federal troops.
“This country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs,” U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, wrote in one of her rulings.
The suit brought on behalf of Illinois and the city of Chicago makes similar arguments about federal overreach.
“The Federalization Order’s deployment of federalized military forces to protect federal personal and property from ‘violent demonstrations’ that ‘are occurring or are likely to occur’ represents the exact type of intrusion on State power that is at the heart of the Tenth Amendment,” the suit says.
“The deployment of federalized National Guard, including from another state, infringes on Illinois’s sovereignty and right to self-governance. It will cause only more unrest, including harming social fabric and community relations and increasing the mistrust of police. It also creates economic harm, depressing business activities and tourism that not only hurt Illinoisians but also hurt Illinois’s tax revenue,” the suit says.
The city and the state want a judge to declare the administration’s federalization and deployment of the National Guard of the United States, any state National Guard, or deployment of the U.S. military in Illinois as “unconstitutional and/or unlawful.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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