By John Fritze, CNN
(CNN) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday barred President Donald Trump from deploying the National Guard to Chicago to protect ICE agents, handing the White House a rare loss at the high court as the president has sought to send troops to multiple American cities.
“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 court said in its unsigned order.
Conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch dissented from the opinion.
CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.
Federal law allows a president to federalize the National Guard when he can no longer execute the laws of the United States with “regular forces.” A debate cropped up during the case about whether that term, “regular forces,” meant the regular military or all federal agents, such as those who work for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In its order, the court said that the term “likely” refers to the standing military. Further, the court said the ability to federalize the guard under the law Trump attempted to invoke “likely applies only where the military could legally execute the laws.” In other words, the court suggested, it does not apply to protecting agents enforcing immigration laws.
“Thus, at least in this posture, the government has not carried its burden to show that” the law at issue in the case, “permits the president to federalize the guard in the exercise of inherent authority to protect federal personnel and property in Illinois,” the court said.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative who sided with the court’s underlying decision, said he would have done so on more narrow grounds. He agreed that the term regular forces means the US military.
“The court’s legal interpretation, as I understand it, could lead to potentially significant implications for future crises that we cannot now foresee,” Kavanaugh said.
Alito, joined by Thomas, wrote that he “strongly” disagreed with the way the court dealt with the case.
“The court fails to explain why the president’s inherent constitutional authority to protect federal officers and property is not sufficient to justify the use of National Guard members in the relevant area for precisely that purpose,” Alito wrote. “I am not prepared at this point to express a definite view on these questions, but I have serious doubts about the correctness of the court’s views.”
Alito argued that his colleagues had “no basis for rejecting the president’s determination that he was unable to execute the federal immigration laws using the civilian law enforcement resources at his command.”
“Whatever one may think about the current administration’s enforcement of the immigration laws or the way ICE has conducted its operations, the protection of federal officers from potentially lethal attacks should not be thwarted,” Alito wrote.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
The-CNN-Wire
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