A judge blocked Donald Trump from sending US troops to Chicago claiming there is "no credible evidence that there is a danger of rebellion in the state of Illinois."
U.S. District Judge April Perry blasted the Department of Homeland Security claiming their evidence is unreliable and has serious doubts about their credibility.
In handing down her order, U.S. District Judge April Perry also ripped the Department of Homeland Security's factual accounts of crime its agents have been encountering recently, citing judicial findings in other cases over the past two days that the agency has been using "unreliable evidence.
"Those accounts cast "significant doubt on DHS’s credibility on what is going on in the streets of Chicago."
--She also pressed the lawyer for DOJ, Eric Hamilton, on what the guard would be doing in Chicago and whether members would be armed."What are they being trained and deployed to do?" the judge asked at one point, while also noting the parameters of their duties are vague. "I am very much struggling to find where this would stop," Perry said.
Gov. Pritzker hailed the decision:
Donald Trump is not a king — and his administration is not above the law.
Today, the court confirmed what we all know: there is no credible evidence of a rebellion in the state of Illinois.
And no place for the National Guard in the streets of American cities like Chicago.— Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) October 9, 2025
On CNN, Anderson Cooper, and Ellie Honig dug into the ruling.
"Not only did the judge say that that she didn't see a credible evidence of rebellion, she also said the Homeland Security Department's perception of events are unreliable, which is incredibly damaging," said anchor Anderson Cooper.
Yeah, that's a stinging rebuke right there," agreed Honig, who frequently offers insight into Trump's legal controversies.
"So what this judge did is really dig in over the last several days and gather facts," he continued. "And the judge said the president's claim that it was necessary to deploy these troops in order to protect federal assets and federal resources was simply untrue, unverified and questionable. And the judge gave as one example. She said, the largest protest that we've had involved, 200 protesters, and there were 100 local cops. So you have a 2-to-1 ratio there. No one got hurt, no one got injured. So this judge has put a pause on what the president has done now."
