Trump Stunned by Appeals Court Ruling on His Chicago Troop Plan

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0:30Michael Popok:We got breaking news here on the Midas Touch Network. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals 3-0 has decided not to grant the Trump administration's request to block Judge Perry's order stopping the National Guard from being deployed in Illinois, including in Chicago. This is a second order now by the full three judge panel, not just an administrative order in which the three judges, two Republican appointees, one by Reagan, one by Bush and then one by Clinton, all got together and said they are not going to allow Donald Trump to have his own version of the facts. and even his own version of the facts do not support mobilizing and deploying the National Guard in Illinois, at least not at this preliminary stage.

1:21Michael Popok:So what they've done is they've now ruled 3-0, that they're going to allow for now, during the course of a normal appeal, which could take several months, the National Guard in Illinois to be federalized, commandeered, mobilized, if you will, but not deployed, meaning stay in your barracks. They're not on the streets. And when I read the order, I was also struck by an observation from the record by the three judges, basically saying, you said Operation Midway, your attempt to round up immigrants and migrants was a success. How can you say it was a success and that you don't have an ability to properly execute federal law all at the same time?

2:08Michael Popok:If that's the basis under this statute, I'm going to talk a lot about on this hot take, 12406. If the basis of 12406 is I can't execute federal law, then how do you have such a successful operation midway? You like apples? How's them apples? I'm Michael Popok. You're on the Midas Dutch Network. I'm going to post this actual decision on Legal AF Substack for you to read, but let me give you the highlights. We had a ruling by Judge April Perry just a few days ago in which she blocked both the mobilization, the takeover, the commandeering of the National Guard in Illinois off the heels of what was going on in Oregon and California.

2:52Michael Popok:And in addition, she stopped them from being deployed in the streets of Chicago, for example. Trump took an appeal. And I'm going to read to you from a certain amazing passages in Judge Perry's decision, which are based on our founding fathers and framers and the Federalist Papers and the rest. Trump takes an appeal to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which sits over Illinois. We get an order from anonymous. Now we know the three judges. The judges now are Judge Ravner, Judge Hamilton and Judge St. Eve. They issue an administrative stay granting Donald Trump a stay only of that portion of Judge Perry's order that that blocked the mobilization.

3:40In other words, he can commandeer and kind of get them all staged, but they got to stay in their barracks and off the streets, but would not let them be deployed because that would change the status quo. And then we're off on the appeal. Now we've got, after full briefing and a whole bunch of briefs that came in from attorneys general on Democratic states and attorneys general from Republican states, all sorts of amicus briefs. We've now got the ruling. And here's the ruling. Let me read it to you. It's per curiam, meaning it reflects the decision of all three judges, Ravner, Hamilton and St.

4:18Michael Popok:Eve. On October 4th, 2025, President Donald Trump invoked his authority under 10 U.S.C. Section 12406 to federalize and deploy members of the National Guard within Illinois over the objection of the governor. He asserted that deploying the Guard in the state was necessary to quell violent assaults against federal immigration agents and property. The state of Illinois took their case and said it was a violation of the Tenth Amendment, sovereign power of the state, and the Posse Comitatus Act, among other things. This is how they conclude their decision.

5:21but you can't be deployed, get back to your barracks. And what they're basing this on is the fact that while there was at one time a group of people that were protesting, it numbered, according to them, on page 18 of their decision, sorry, page three of their decision, about 100 to 150 protesters that were outside of a detention center in Illinois, and that the number of average protesters was about 50 and that this did not stop Operation Midway from being successful or Midway Blitz. This is what they say on page six. Despite President Trump's federalization of the Guard troops saying that it's necessary to enforce federal immigration law, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE have touted the success of Operation Midway Blitz.

6:13In an October 3rd press release, DHS stated that ICE and the Customs and Border Patrol have affected more than 1 ,000 immigration arrests since the start of the operation. In a September 26th press release, the Department of Homeland Security declared the protest had not slowed ICE down and, in fact, had significantly increased their deportation and arrest numbers year over year. So then why do you need to federalize and mobilize and deploy the National Guard? Very good question asked by the three-judge panel, to which they answered, you don't. Hey, everybody. Ben Mycelis here from the Midas Touch Network.

6:50I wanted to let you know about my podcast partner, Michael Popak's new law firm. It's called the Popak Firm. Michael Popak's pursuing his dream of starting his own law firm, really based on the popular demand by all the Midas, Mighty, and Legal AF-ers who were approaching Michael Popak with their cases and saying, can you help us? And at that time, Popak was not able to. So he went out on his own. He started the Popak firm, where he is now handling catastrophic injury cases like car accident cases, trucking cases, malpractice cases, big negligence cases, wrongful death cases. So if you or someone you know have a case like this, the consultation with Popak's firm is free.

7:37Give them a call. See if you have a case. It's thepopakfirm.com, thepopakfirm.com, or you can call 877-POPAKAF, P-O-P-O-K-A-F. So 1-877-P-O-P-O-K-A-F. Give Michael Popak a call. And I'm really proud of you, Popak. Thanks for all the hard work you're putting in. They also said, look, about this deference thing, two major observations. One, this panel ruled for the Seventh Circuit that we as a judicial body have oversight over a president's decision making in and around Section 12406. Whether there's a rebellion, whether there's domestic violence, whether he can't execute the laws, great deference is given to a president named Trump or something else in that area.

8:30But it doesn't mean it's not judicially reviewable. It doesn't mean there's no role for the federal courts, which is what Donald Trump says, which you can't even make a decision. Complete plenary power is given to the president. Not so. We have the right to review it while giving great deference. And they basically used the framework that the Ninth Circuit in California used about the California National Guard case as well. But they said even when we give great deference, the facts don't support on the ground, the reality on the ground does not support the extraordinary step of deploying the National Guard on the streets of Illinois at all.

9:13They went through, here's how they put it best on page 14. Applying our understanding of rebellion to the district court's factual findings. Because remember, Judge Perry did an entire factual analysis. She had hearings, she had witnesses, she has documents and evidence and videos. And they're not going to disturb her findings at this point. They don't find that they were clearly erroneous, which is the standard to disturb a trial court's decision. Here's what they say. The three-judge panel says on page 14. Applying our tentative understanding of rebellion to the district court's factual findings, and even after affording great deference to the president's evaluation of the circumstances, we see insufficient evidence of a rebellion or danger of rebellion in Illinois.

9:59The spirited, sustained, and occasionally violent actions of demonstrators in protest to the federal government's immigration policies and actions without more does not give rise to a danger of rebellion against the government's authority. The administration thus has not demonstrated that it is likely to succeed on the merits. It also goes over the other prong of Section 12406, the third prong, which is that the president can deploy federalized National Guard when he's unable with regular forces to execute the laws of the United States. In other words, they have to be significantly impeded. That's what unable means.

10:42And he can't do it with federal officers. But he says, looking at the record so far, including the bragging that the Trump administration was doing, they clearly can continue to execute laws and to capture and arrest people pursuant to their Operation Midway Blitz. So their final ruling for now, subject to the appeal, this is the last word, at least for the Seventh Circuit, is stay in your barracks. We're not going to make him unfederalize or commandeer the National Guard, but we're not going to let him use them either. It's like he's got toys, but they're wrapped until Christmas and he may not be able to play with them.

11:22I guess that's the right way to put it. I'll continue to follow this on a breaking news cycle. Just to give you a quick update. We've got a new ruling coming out of the Ninth Circuit. Sorry, Judge Immergut in Oregon up to the Ninth Circuit in which she has extended her order stopping the deployment on the streets of Portland. Same thing as the Seventh Circuit waiting on the Ninth Circuit to rule. So we got two big wheels spinning in appellate world. The Ninth Circuit sitting over Oregon and California were waiting on a final ruling from them, a three-judge panel there, about Judge Immergut's order and whether the mobilization of the National Guard was appropriate under the unique circumstances of Oregon.

12:05My gut is they're going to allow it in Oregon. It was a little deadlier there, if you know what I mean. But we'll see what happens with the ruling. On the other hand, we're waiting now for the Seventh Circuit to get full briefing and get into their mode. Probably these two orders of the Ninth and the Seventh will be several months apart. And then it ultimately ends up at the United States Supreme Court. I'm glad you're here with me. I might as touch. Take a moment. Hit the free subscribe button. And while you're at it, come over to Legal AF YouTube channel and do the exact same thing. Till my next report, I'm Michael Popak.

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