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The Supreme Court dealt a rare and remarkable defeat to President Donald Trump on Tuesday, blocking his deployment of the National Guard to assist immigration agents in Chicago. By a 6–3 vote, the court held that Trump’s federalization of the Guard was likely unlawful, with the majority severely restricting the president’s broader authority to deploy troops for domestic law enforcement. The decision constitutes a significant setback for the administration’s efforts to flood blue cities with National Guard members; it also arguably marks Trump’s biggest Supreme Court defeat since his return to office, with major implications for other aspects of his agenda that go beyond the conservative legal movement’s long-standing priorities.

Tuesday’s ruling in Trump v. Illinois caps off, for now, a clash between federal and state authority with the potential to set off a genuine constitutional crisis. It began in October, when Trump deployed members of the Illinois and Texas National Guards to Chicago to help out with Operation Midway Blitz, an immigration enforcement initiative. The president claimed that both residents and local law enforcement were obstructing the operation, necessitating federalization of the Guard. He ordered Guard members to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection as they engaged in a campaign of brutality and terror against Latino communities. Chicago and Illinois both sued, and a federal judge ruled that Trump’s use of the Guard was probably unlawful. An appeals court

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