The Trump administration filed an emergency petition to the Supreme Court on Friday asking it to lift a lower court’s order blocking the deployment of the National Guard to Chicago.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked, in the petition on the high court’s emergency docket, for the justices to pause an injunction blocking troops from being deployed to protect federal assets and personnel in Chicago, a day after a federal appeals court declined to do so.
“This case presents what has become a disturbing and recurring pattern: Federal officers are attempting to enforce federal immigration law in an urban area containing significant numbers of illegal aliens,” Sauer wrote. “The federal agents’ efforts are met with prolonged, coordinated, violent resistance that threatens their lives and safety and systematically interferes with their ability to enforce federal law.”
The Trump administration in recent months has ordered the National Guard deployed to Los Angeles, Portland, and Chicago to protect federal property and immigration officers after unruly protests targeted federal immigration operations. Sauer pointed to the first lawsuit targeting President Donald Trump’s use of the National Guard in Los Angeles as the beginning of what he described as a pattern of courts attempting to restrict the president’s constitutional authority.
Sauer called for the high court to lift a federal district court’s order, which was largely upheld by a federal appeals court, that blocked federalized National Guard troops from being deployed to Chicago.
“The injunction improperly impinges on the President’s authority and needlessly endangers federal personnel and property. The balance of harms weighs strongly in favor of interim relief pending appeal and (if necessary) certiorari, so that the National Guard may perform its protective function while any further litigation is ongoing,” the petition said.
APPEALS COURT REJECTS TRUMP’S EVIDENCE OF VIOLENT CHICAGO PROTESTS, BLOCKS NATIONAL GUARD DEPLOYMENT
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled Thursday to lift the district court’s order blocking the federalization of the Illinois National Guard, but declined to lift the part of the lower court’s order blocking the deployment of troops. The appeals court’s order also downplayed the Trump administration’s claims of unrest over federal immigration operations in the city.
The Justice Department’s Friday petition to the Supreme Court’s emergency docket marks the latest instance of the Trump administration asking the high court to lift a lower court’s ruling on an emergency basis. The administration has been largely successful in getting lower court orders lifted by the justices since Trump returned to office in January.