The Trump administration is imploring the Supreme Court to show "extraordinary deference" to the president as commander-in-chief and affirm the lawfulness of his National Guard deployment to Illinois, arguing in a new court filing that federal agents conducting immigration enforcement are unable to do the work on their own. Sauer argued in the letter that it does not refer to the standing military -- which Trump has not attempted to deploy in Illinois -- but instead refers to the "civilian forces that regularly 'execute the laws' at issue but are 'unable' to do so in present circumstances," or the ICE and DHS agents on the ground. "Given the nature of the problem in Illinois, it was a reasonable exercise of the President's discretion to deploy National Guardsmen, who are civilians temporarily called up to serve with deep experience in deescalating domestic disturbances among their fellow citizens, rather than the standing military, whose primary function is to win wars by deploying lethal force against foreign enemies," Sauer told the Supreme Court.
Author: Devin Dwyer
Published at: 2025-11-10 23:48:22
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