Courts Constrain Federal Authority

U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pause his push to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland reflects the growing impact of legal resistance on his domestic security agenda. In a social media post Wednesday, Trump said he would stand down “for now,” after courts repeatedly blocked or limited the deployments. The move underscores how judicial oversight has become a central constraint on the administration’s efforts to federalize state National Guard units without the consent of Democratic governors.

Trump warned the reprieve would be temporary. “We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again – Only a question of time!” he wrote. Governors typically control their states’ Guard forces, but Trump has sought to override that norm as part of a broader crackdown on immigration, crime, and protests during his second term.

“Not Solving All of Crime”

Legal challenges delayed or prevented deployments in two of the three cities. National Guard troops were never placed on the streets in Chicago or Portland as lawsuits proceeded. During litigation in Illinois, a Justice Department lawyer told the court that the Guard’s mission would be limited to protecting federal properties and agents, not “solving all of crime in Chicago.” Chicago officials later said the city recorded 416 homicides in 2025, the lowest total since 2014, crediting local policing rather than federal intervention.

Portland followed a similar pattern. Hundreds of troops from California and Oregon were federalized, but a federal judge barred them from street deployment. After a three-day trial, a judge permanently blocked the deployment in November. Portland Mayor Keith Wilson’s office said crime reductions there stemmed from local police and public safety programs, not federal forces.

Federalization Meets Resistance

Los Angeles was the first test case. Trump federalized the California National Guard in June after protests erupted over a wave of immigration arrests. About 4,000 Guard troops and 700 Marines were deployed to guard federal buildings and support immigration enforcement. The number steadily declined to several hundred before troops were removed from the streets by Dec. 15, following a lower court ruling ordering control returned to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

An appeals court initially paused that order, leaving control with Trump, but on Wednesday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit directed the administration to return authority to Newsom. “About time (Trump) admitted defeat,” Newsom said, adding, “the federal takeover of California’s National Guard is illegal.”

Uneven National Picture

Elsewhere, Guard deployments continue. In Washington, D.C., troops have been in place since August after Trump declared a “crime emergency.” In December, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit paused a lower court ruling that would have ended the deployment. In Tennessee, Trump ordered Guard troops to Memphis in September; a judge blocked the move, but stayed the ruling during appeal, allowing the deployment to proceed.

In New Orleans, about 350 National Guard troops arrived in the French Quarter on Tuesday and are scheduled to remain through Mardi Gras, a deployment supported by both the Republican governor and the city’s Democratic mayor. The contrasting outcomes highlight how Trump’s National Guard strategy has been shaped less by uniform policy than by court rulings and state-level consent.