Having temporarily taken over the District of Columbia police, as well as deploying the D.C. National Guard and other federal law enforcement personnel, President Trump has idly speculated that Chicago might be next, followed by New York. Those cities, of course, are run by Democrats who assert that since crime has declined from the stratospheric levels of 2020-2021, everything is fine.
But they take Trump’s musings seriously:
Just hours after President Donald Trump suggested Chicago would be the next location for a federal troop deployment like the one occurring in Washington, D.C., both Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker said the president would be illegally abusing his power if he follows through on the threat.
“The problem with the President’s approach is that it is uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound,” Johnson said in a statement. “Unlawfully deploying the National Guard to Chicago has the potential to inflame tensions between residents and law enforcement when we know that trust between police and residents is foundational to building safer communities.”
And in a post on the social media site X, Pritzker rejected Trump’s notion that Chicagoans were clamoring for the National Guard to patrol city streets.
“Things People are Begging for: 1. Cheaper groceries 2. No Medicaid and SNAP cuts 3. Release of the Epstein Files,” Pritzker wrote. “Things People are NOT begging for: 1. An authoritarian power grab of major cities.”
The idea that the people of Chicago are clamoring for more Epstein files is laughable, as are most things that Pritzker says. But is there any legal basis for Trump to deploy the National Guard to Chicago, or any likelihood that he might do so?
In general, the posse comitatus act prohibits using the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement. There are exceptions; the National Guard can be federalized in case of insurrection or domestic violence that impedes federal activities. In Los Angeles, Trump used the California National Guard to protect federal property. To my knowledge, it did not conduct routine law enforcement activities. And in L.A., of course, there were riots in progress, not just a high level of crime. The District of Columbia is unique, of course, being a federal territory.
So is there any legal basis for deploying National Guard units to Chicago to aid in law enforcement? I don’t think so. And, contrary to what its critics allege, the Trump administration has been scrupulous about adhering to the law, even when it has been grotesquely misapplied by rogue Democratic Party judges. Trump’s thinking out loud when talking to the press is not necessarily a harbinger of actual executive actions.
So unless I am badly mistaken, the citizens of Chicago can go back to worrying about Jeffrey Epstein.
