It’s hard to think of a more dramatic question than the issue before the Supreme Court in Trump v. Illinois.

President Donald Trump wants to use federalized troops to quell protests outside an immigration detention facility near Chicago. Two federal courts have ruled that federal law does not permit Trump to do this. But the case is now before a Supreme Court dominated by six Republican justices who rarely part ways with the leader of their political party.

Trump’s arguments in the Illinois case, moreover, are quite aggressive. His lawyers claim that the question of when the president may exercise his power to take control of National Guard members, who are ordinarily under the command of state officials, “is committed exclusively to the president” and cannot be reviewed by federal court

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