The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to allow it to deploy National Guard troops to the Chicago area, escalating a standoff between the administration and the Democratic-led city.
The Justice Department filed an emergency application on Friday after a federal appeals court on Thursday upheld a lower court ruling that had blocked the deployment of National Guard troops to the state of Illinois.
What do we know about the Trump administration’s petition to the Supreme Court?
Solicitor General D. John Sawyer, representing the government, told the justices that the court order blocking the National Guard deployment “improperly impinges on the President’s authority and unnecessarily endangers federal personnel and property.”
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker posted the
“Militarizing our communities against their will is not only un-American, it takes us down a dangerous path for our democracy,” he said.
Supreme Court justices to consider Trump’s effort to deploy the National Guard
President Donald Trump There has been an emphasis on sending troops to Chicago, along with several other Democratic-led cities where the US President has attempted to deploy troops to crack down on “egregious” crime.
But Democrats have accused Trump of overstepping his authority to intimidate his political rivals.
Pritzker previously said: “This is not about fighting crime. This is about Donald Trump finding any justification for deploying the military to a blue state to try to intimidate his political rivals.”
The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority and Trump has often turned to the high court when lower courts have ruled against his administration’s orders.
Edited by: Rana Taha