Donald Trump assumed he could rely on the Supreme Court to rubber-stamp whatever unconstitutional abuses of power he cooked up. But, in a heartwarming twist as Christmas rolls around, it seems there are actually limits to what the judicial branch will let him get away with.
Late yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled on whether Trump sending national guard troops to Chicago was legal. The result? 6-3 against Trump, with the judges backing a lower court ruling that Trump and his goons hadn’t come close to proving that the situation on the ground was so dire that lawfulness could only be preserved down the barrel of a soldier’s rifle.
As you might expect, the three most conservative justices – Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch – were the dissenters. But, in a surprising twist, two Trump-appointed justices – Brett Kavanagh and Amy Coney Barrett – both agreed that the national guard deployment was unlawful.
BREAKING: Significant loss for Trump administration at Supreme Court, which rules that Trump lacked authority to federalize and deploy the National Guard to execute laws in Illinois. https://t.co/T9zLnRC4GE pic.twitter.com/5aIERMb0i8
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 23, 2025
This is a huge blow to Trump’s ongoing plans to bully Democrat-voting cities into submission and blows a hole in his argument that the deployments are necessary to fight a largely fictitious crime wave sweeping major metropolitan areas.
No “danger of rebellion”
The Supreme Court confirms that the decision by US District Judge April Perry earlier this year was correct, in which she said there was no evidence that – as the Trump administration continues to insist – there was a “danger of rebellion” brewing in Illinois. It also underlined that, contrary to their arguments, the protests against ICE aren’t hindering their activities in any real way.
BREAKING: The Supreme Court just BLOCKED trump from federalizing the National Guard in Illinois, 6-3!!!
— BrooklynDad_Defiant!
Another HUGE loss for trump!
LET'S GOOOOO!!!!! pic.twitter.com/UNAA4DiqNS(@mmpadellan) December 23, 2025
This ruling doesn’t simply affect the Illinois deployment though, it will also be used as a precedent in the many other ongoing legal battles across the nation over the president putting his troops on American streets. Right now, these aren’t going Trump’s way: a federal judge in Oregon permanently blocked that deployment, and a Tennessee state court ruled in favor of Democrats in a similar battle.
Trump himself is yet to comment on this ruling, though you can bet it’s going to put him in a sour mood over Christmas. The Supreme Court is stacked with conservatives! This wasn’t supposed to happen!
