A federal judge says the Trump Administration illegally used thousands of military troops in Southern California, in a ruling that's drawing increased attention as the President openly discusses sending the National Guard into Chicago.
District judge Charles Breyer says the Administration essentially turned thousands of National Guard and active-duty Marines into an illegal national police force when it sent them into Los Angeles, first to strike down anti-ICE demonstrations and then to assist immigration agents across southern California.
And that's what reports suggest the Administration is planning for Chicago, at least initially: National Guard troops to assist an ICE surge based at Naval Station Great Lakes in the northern suburbs, possibly as soon as September 5.
"The question before the courts is going to be how to interpret what it is exactly that ICE does," says University of Chicago history and law professor Jane Dailey, noting that the "Posse Comitatus Act" forbids using the National Guard for purposes of policing.
"The President, as I understand it, cannot send the National Guard uninvited to a state in order to participate in any type of police activities," said Prof. Dailey.
However, she notes that just because the law says it can't be done, doesn't mean the Trump Administration wouldn't do it ... and then fight attempts to stop them.
"The Trump Administration has been extremely provocative on this topic of whether or not it will bend to judicial rulings," Prof. Dailey said, while acknowledging that the White House has so far deferred to rulings of the Supreme Court.
And regardless of the rationale, Prof. Dailey says that history includes several examples of the costs that can be involved in the National Guard being brought into an American city, including an instance in Chicago in 1894 that led to numerous deaths: "It didn't work out very well at Kent State ... it did not work out well at all at Pullman ... and so, the examples that spring to mind are not happy examples."