Judge Dismisses Illinois Lawsuit Against Trump

A federal judge has dismissed Illinois’ lawsuit over Donald Trump’s blocked National Guard deployment, ruling the case is now moot because the troops are gone. (news.wttw.com) U.S. District Judge April Perry dismissed the case with prejudice on April 20 after the Trump administration said all federalized Illinois National Guard troops had been demobilized, all out-of-state Guard troops had been withdrawn, and no Guard troops remained in Illinois for the mission. (news.wttw.com) Illinois and Chicago sued on October 6, 2025, after Trump ordered 400 Texas National Guard members to Illinois and moved to federalize Guard forces over Gov. JB Pritzker’s objection. State Attorney General Kwame Raoul said the legal conditions for that step — invasion, rebellion, or inability to enforce federal law — did not exist. (patch.com) The case turned on a narrow but important question: when can a president take control of National Guard troops inside a state without the governor’s consent. Illinois argued Trump’s order exceeded 10 U.S.C. § 12406 and ran into the Posse Comitatus Act, the federal law that generally bars the military from carrying out domestic law enforcement. (law.justia.com) That fight had already produced a bigger ruling in December. On December 23, 2025, the Supreme Court refused to let Trump deploy the Guard in Illinois, saying that at that stage the government had not identified legal authority allowing the military to execute the laws there. (supremecourt.gov) The Seventh Circuit had also refused to pause Perry’s earlier order blocking the deployment. In an October 16, 2025 opinion, the appeals court said the president’s decision under Section 12406 could be reviewed by judges and that the statutory conditions for deployment had not been met on the record before it. (law.justia.com) Trump’s administration argued in February 2026 that the district court case should end because no federalized troops remained in the state. Court trackers show the government filed its motion to dismiss on February 6, and the district court took up the remaining issues after settlement talks and the end of the appeal. (democracydocket.com) Illinois and Chicago opposed dismissal, pointing to Trump’s public warning that he could “come back” in a “stronger form” after troops were withdrawn. Perry still found the dispute moot once the orders were no longer operational and the deployment had ended. (news.wttw.com) Pritzker called the order “a win” for Illinois and said it confirmed the state’s position that the deployment plan was unlawful from the start. The case is over, but the court orders from October and December remain the clearest statements yet on how far a president can go in using Guard troops inside a state over local objections. (heartlandernews.com)