A federal judge in Chicago on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from deploying National Guard troops to the city and state as part of its ongoing immigration enforcement push, saying she had no faith in the government’s claims of out-of-control violence and that it was federal agents who started it by aggressively targeting protesters with tear gas and militaristic tactics.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge April Perry is the latest setback for President Donald Trump, who has claimed ongoing violence and clashes between protesters and immigration agents in Chicago and other U.S. cities justified sending federalized troops onto the streets as a security force, even as local and state officials accused the president of manufacturing a crisis to justify unnecessary — and unprecedented — force.
The temporary restraining order issued by Perry, which took effect immediately, bars the president from deploying federalized National Guard troops from any state to any location in Illinois. A written ruling would be issued Friday, she said.
Federal court order. Violating it would be a federal offense. Presidents can pardon federal offenses.
On the other hand, they may be thinking twice after all of his broken promises to pay everyone ever. The idea of a potential pardon doesn’t carry as much weight when the person making the promise notoriously lies about his follow through.
A contempt of court charge isn’t a federal charge, iirc.
Looks like “it’s complicated”.
https://www.lvcriminaldefense.com/usc/contempts/
I haven’t taken a super deep dive here, but it looks like the jurisdiction at hand is the specific court issuing the contempt order. As in, the Court is provided jurisdiction to issue contempt charges, not state or federal or military. I’m sure the argument would be “But it’s a federal court, so the president can pardon the contempt charges.” Which would have to be argued about in … a federal appellate court? The same court? I don’t even know, but it would surely end up on the SCOTUS shadow docket where they’d rubber stamp it in favor of Dear Leader.
Even if SCOTUS didn’t rubber stamp it, the troops would remain boots on the ground until they made a finding in the case. They’ll have bought months of continuing to do whatever they want at the very least.