CHICAGO — A federal appeals court in Chicago on Saturday denied the Trump administration’s request for an emergency stay of a district judge’s order barring the president from deploying National Guard troops in the city and state.

The 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals did, however, grant a temporary stay on a portion of U.S. District Judge April Perry’s order involving the federalization of the National Guard within Illinois.

“Members of the National Guard do not need to return to their home states unless further ordered by a court to do so,” the court order said.

The ruling keeps in effect Perry’s granting of a temporary restraining order Thursday halting President Donald Trump’s plan to send federalized National Guard troops into the Chicago area to act as a security force during the administration’s controversial immigration enforcement action known as “Operation Midway Blitz.”

The Department of Justice argued in a filing Friday night that Perry’s order “improperly impinges on the Commander in Chief’s supervision of military operations, countermands a military directive to officers in the field, and endangers federal personnel and property.”

The 20-page motion asked the higher court to freeze Perry’s order while an appeal is pending, saying the National Guard should be allowed to “protect federal personnel and property” while the litigation continues to play out.

In a response on Saturday, attorneys for Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said Perry was correct in halting Trump’s illegal and unconstitutional plan to dispatch federalized troops to Chicago with no clearly defined scope of the mission, its duration, or any “provable factual underpinning.”

It was clear, the plaintiffs’ attorneys argued, that “absent an injunction, the federal government could and would use the troops consistent with the unbounded scope of the federalization orders — that is, to assist any federal agency on any federal mission that is occurring anywhere in Illinois.”

The dueling motions were a clear indication that the legal battle over Trump’s National Guard plans is far from over.

Perry on Thursday blocked Trump from deploying National Guard troops to the city and state, 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.

Trump 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 security, even as local and state officials accused the president of manufacturing a crisis to justify unnecessary — and unprecedented — force.

In her oral ruling from the bench, Perry, a Biden appointee, said National Guard troops are “not trained in de-escalation or other extremely important law enforcement functions that would help to quell these problems,” and that allowing troops to come into Chicago “will only add fuel to the fire that the defendants themselves have started.”

The judge also said the Trump administration’s attempts to cast protesters as violent rebels “cannot be aligned” with the view of local officials. Perry said she had no faith in the declarations of federal officials submitted to the court due in large part of a growing body of evidence that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s views are “simply unreliable.”

Perry cited several assault cases that had been dismissed against protesters and other orders from federal judges in Chicago entered against DHS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“In the last 48 hours in four separate unrelated legal decisions from different neutral parties, they all cast significant doubt on DHS’ assessment of what is happening on the streets of Chicago,” Perry said.

Perry also said a rebellion is defined as “a deliberate organized resistance openly opposing the laws and government as a whole” by means of armed violence. “I have found no credible evidence that there is a danger of rebellion in the state of Illinois.”

Gov. JB Pritzker cheered the ruling in a statement on social media, writing, ”Donald Trump is not a king — and his administration is not above the law.”

A spokesperson for Trump, meanwhile, said the judge got it wrong.

“Amidst ongoing violent riots and lawlessness, that local leaders like Pritzker have refused to step in to quell, President Trump has exercised his lawful authority to protect federal officers and assets,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson wrote in an emailed statement. “President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities and we expect to be vindicated by a higher court.”

A notice of appeal was filed with the 7th Circuit hours after Perry’s ruling, but the court has not yet set a briefing schedule.

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