Overview
- U.S. District Judge April Perry dismissed the Illinois and Chicago lawsuit Monday after Justice Department lawyers confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rescinded the National Guard deployment orders on Dec. 31.
- She ruled the case is moot and said courts cannot issue advisory rulings on hypothetical future deployments, noting that things in Chicago have been calm for many months.
- Perry reviewed a record of Hegseth’s Dec. 31 oral directive and read parts of it in open court, saying the order killed an extension that would have kept the deployment in place through mid-April.
- The judge noted Illinois and Chicago still have legal options if the administration attempts another deployment based on misrepresentations to the court.
- The dispute began with Operation Midway Blitz, a deportation campaign that produced a Supreme Court loss for the administration in December, and local reporting says prosecutors have not secured convictions for violence against federal agents tied to those events.