The Supreme Court has rebuffed President Donald Trump’s attempt to deploy National Guard troops in Illinois to protect federal officials carrying out his mass-deportation policy.

In their ruling Tuesday, the justices noted that federal law generally bars use of the military for law enforcement, and they declared that the law Trump used to activate the Guard is likely to only apply when regular armed forces — the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines — are insufficient to maintain order.

“At this preliminary stage, the Government has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois,” the high court said in an unsigned order released more than two months after the administration asked the justices to weigh in.

Three conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch — dissented, while another conservative, Brett Kavanaugh, declined to join the majority’s explanation of the ruling.

The Supreme Court’s decision turned down the administration’s bid to lift lower court orders that halted the president’s plan to use 500 National Guard soldiers from Illinois and Texas to respond to protests and unrest at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in suburban Chicago.

The ruling is a rare loss for the president following a string of wins he has racked up on the high court’s emergency docket in the first year of his second term. The justices cleared the way for him to fire leaders of federal agencies, dismiss tens of thousands of government employees and halt thousands of federal grants and contracts.

>https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/23/supreme-court-national-guard-ruling-00704962