State of Illinois v. Donald J. Trump

Chicago, Illinois, constitutional law lawyers represented the State of Illinois challenging the power of President.



Since this country was founded, Americans have disagreed about the appropriate division of power between the federal government and the fifty states that make up our Union. This tension is a natural result of the system of federalism adopted by our Founders. And yet, not even the Founding Father most ardently in favor of a strong federal government believed that one state's militia could be sent to another state for the purposes of political retribution, calling such a suggestion "inflammatory,” and stating "it is impossible to believe that [a President] would employ such preposterous means to accomplish their designs.”[1] But Plaintiffs contend that such an event has come to pass, and argue that National Guard troops from both Illinois and Texas have been deployed to Illinois because the President of the United States wants to punish state elected officials whose policies are different from his own. Plaintiffs further argue that President Donald J. Trump has exceeded the authority granted to him by 10 U.S.C. § 12406, violated the Tenth Amendment, and that the deployment of federalized troops violates the Posse Comitatus Act. Before this Court is a request for a temporary restraining order ("TRO”) and preliminary injunction barring mobilization of the National Guard or deployment of the U.S. military over the objection of the Governor of Illinois.

For the reasons that follow, Plaintiffs' motion for a TRO is GRANTED, in part.