U.S. District Judge April Perry, a Biden appointee, temporarily blocked President Trump from deploying National Guard from any state to Illinois on Thursday, citing concerns that it could lead to more civil unrest.
The block is set to last a total of 14 days.
BREAKING: Illinois U.S. District Court Judge April Perry (Biden appointed) has temporarily BLOCKED the Trump administration from deploying the Texas National Guard to Chicago.
— RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) October 9, 2025
Garrett Tenney: “Based on this ruling, the National Guard will have to stand down after less than 24… pic.twitter.com/cg4lYzpXlK
“There is overwhelming evidence submitted that the provocative nature of ICE’s enforcement activity, the repeated constitutional violations, has itself caused a significant increase in protest activity,” she said.
Judge Perry, on Monday, had declined to immediately block the national guard deployment.
During oral arguments, a lawyer for the Trump administration, Eric Hamilton, characterized the deployment as a "limited mission," solely defending federal property and federal agents. However, he was unable to say that the troops would remain limited to those responsibilities.
Judge Perry said she is "very much struggling to figure out where [the deployments] would ever stop.”
Hamilton continued to argue that President Trump can federalize the National Guard when “there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States” or when “the president is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.” Much of the hearing was focused on defining “rebellion” and “regular forces,” in order to determine if conditions on the ground met those criteria.
Judge Perry ultimately called into recent cases where the Department of Homeland Security's actions and version of events were questioned, even arguing that there was growing evidence that “DHS’s perceptions of events are simply unreliable.”
“The judge has ordered that the National Guard of the United States, whether from Texas or any other one of the 50 states, should not be deployed within the state of Illinois,” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said on Thursday. “It is up to the defendants to make certain that they abide by the judge’s order.”
The Trump administration has signaled that it will appeal the ruling.