Judge tosses lawsuit over Trump's push to deploy National Guard to Chicago

Six months after she blocked President Donald Trump’s efforts to deploy National Guard troops into Chicago, a federal judge Monday confirmed that the orders triggering the deployment are no longer in effect and dismissed the lawsuit that challenged them.

U.S. District Judge April Perry ruled that the case is “moot,” meaning there’s no meaningful action left for her to take. But she warned that there are still “fail safes” built into the legal system, especially if it turns out there were “misrepresentations” from the Trump administration.

“The court cannot provide ongoing protection against hypothetical unlawful acts committed by the federal government,” Perry said.

The judge’s ruling comes despite a Dec. 31 social media post by Trump, commenting on his administration’s plans for Chicago, in which he promised “we will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again — Only a question of time!”

Perry told the courtroom, “I honestly don’t know what to make of those particular social media messages.”

Given that the president’s comments were “about general crime control, which is not at all what this deployment was supposed to be about,” Perry said the president’s commentary was “not helpful enough” to find any exception in the law that would allow her to keep the case alive.

To read the full report, visit chicago.suntimes.com.