The Supreme Court has refused to allow the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area to support its immigration crackdown.
The justices declined on Tuesday the Republican administration's emergency request to overturn a ruling by US District Judge April Perry that had blocked the deployment of troops.
An appeals court also had refused to step in. The Supreme Court took more than two months to act.
The high court order is not a final ruling, but it could affect other lawsuits challenging President Donald Trump's attempts to deploy the military in other Democratic-led cities.
The outcome is a rare Supreme Court setback for Trump, who had won repeated victories in emergency appeals since he took office again in January.
No legal ground
In an unsigned ruling, the Supreme Court determined that "at least in this posture," the Trump administration had not demonstrated that Title 10—the statute cited by Trump—allows him to federalise the National Guard "in the exercise of inherent authority to protect federal personnel and property in Illinois."
In October, US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) said a total of 500 National Guard troops arrived in the Chicago area to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other government personnel who are performing federal functions.
Trump so far has sought to deploy National Guard and active-duty troops to five major Democratic-led cities — Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland and Memphis — while also threatening potential military deployment in several others, including Baltimore, New York City, New Orleans, Oakland, San Francisco and St. Louis.
