Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Appeals Court makes Decisive Ruling on Trump’s Chicago Invasion
Episode Date: October 13, 2025In Breaking News, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has blocked Trump’s deployment of Federalized National Guard Troops on the streets of Chicago and the rest of the state, ordering them to remain in... their barracks until they have had a chance to consider Trump’s appeal. Triggered by the ruling, VP JD Vance took to the airwaves to promote the use of the Insurrection Act, as Stephen Miller’s phony law firm “America First Legal” asks to file a brief to support Stephen Miller’s own policies. Michael Popok looks at the new ruling and how federal trial courts are ruling against Trump by citing to the Founding Fathers and Framers, and warning Americans that Trump poses an existential threat to our Republic. Check out the Popok Firm: https://thepopokfirm.com Subscribe: @LegalAFMTN Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Donald Trump's federalized, militarized National Guard in Illinois, stay in your barracks.
We have a new decision over the weekend.
In breaking news, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals sits in Illinois over all Illinois federal courts.
Very similar to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has said to Donald Trump, you can mobilize, but you can't deploy.
You can take them over.
You can leave them in their barracks, but don't put them on the show.
streets of Illinois until we've had full briefing, and we've had a opportunity to make our ruling,
almost identical to what the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals did about Judge Imbergot's decision
in Oregon. That's the same reason. Those National Guardsmen are staying in their barracks. I cover
it all right here on the Midas Dutch Network and Legal AF. Thanks for being here with us. All right,
let's talk about how we got here. Against the backdrop of all of that, we've got Donald Trump,
JD Vance and the real president of the United States, at least for domestic policy, is Stephen
Miller using the language of insurrection. Not only that, but Stephen Miller, who formed a law firm
that sounded suspiciously like legal AF while he was in exile the first time called America First
Legal has actually asked the Seventh Circuit for permission to file a brief in support of the Trump
administration. I mean, how many players are there going to be allowed? Too many players on the
field judges. They've already got their Department of Justice. They've already got their Solicitor
General. They've already got Stephen Miller in the White House. Now we need a law firm
controlled by Stephen Miller filing briefs to support the Trump administration. I hope the
Seventh Circuit rejects that. Let's start with how we got here, the Seventh Circuit decision,
which I'm going to post up on Legal AF Substack, and some clips from over the weekend and
beyond, just to show you what we're dealing with, with this threat of the Insurrection Act,
which has been invoked about 30 times in American history the last time in 1992, when
LA got a little bit out of control, parts of it anyway, during the Rodney King riots.
It requires that there be a rebellion or domestic violence, as pointed out by the president,
to exercise it, and then he can federalize and militarize everything against the American
people. And he's been threatening it. Now that the Seventh Circuit has ruled, get ready. We're getting
closer if the insurrection clock is not at midnight yet, but it's getting awful close. Let's start
with Judge Perry. Two judges last week, Judge Perry and Judge Ellis issued companion orders about
Donald Trump's use of the National Guard on the streets. First, Judge Ellis ruled, if the National
Guard's going to be on the streets or the military is going to be on the streets, you got to abide by the
First Amendment and Civil Liberties, and you can't fire pepper balls into the face of clergymen
wearing the cloth journalists or protesters. The fact that a federal judge had to write that,
do not, you are blocked, you are enjoined from firing pepper balls, using riot gear,
using militarized riot gear against journalists and members of the clergy and First Amendment
protesters is shameful. But she did. She had a long list. We have it up on Legal
I have substack a long list of military-grade riot gear from pepper balls to non-lethal rifles,
whatever that's supposed to be.
I mean, a bullet in your head is probably going to cause you damage.
Regardless, zip ties and missile launchers and gas, use of gas for dispersion.
I mean, we've seen video of a guy in a frog, a person in a frog suit protesting and a ice
officer or National Guard putting a pepper ball shooting it into his costume. It's just mind-boggling.
So then we had the second order a day later from Judge Perry, in which she cited to Alexander Hamilton
and the threat of tyranny when a president uses the military or militarized, federalized, state
militia against the American people. Siding back to Alexander Hamilton, the Federalist paper,
citing back to the Declaration of Independence,
about why our founders left England
and the threat of a standing army by King George
and the fact that he's not allowed Donald Trump
to have his own set of facts,
own deference to facts,
when there was no out-of-control domestic violence
or rebellion on the streets of Illinois
to justify at all the use of the military
or the commandeering of the military by the president.
And she wrote it in her order.
and stop them from employing it.
Similar to what the Ninth Circuit,
sorry, what Judge Imurgut did in Oregon,
although based on the Ninth Circuit oral argument
dominated by two Trumpers,
I'm not so sure any part of Judge Imurgat's order is going to stand,
but they did for now stay the deployment in Oregon.
Fast forward to Chicago on the heels of Oregon,
Judge Imrigat.
I can see a lot of Judge Imrigat's ruling
an analysis in Judge Perry's ruling
and Judge Ellis' ruling.
While that's all going on,
we get an order from the Seventh Circuit on Saturday,
which effectively adopts the same logic
as the Ninth Circuit a week earlier.
It says, and we'll put it up on the screen,
and we'll put it up on LegalAF Substack,
for now, administrative stay
just for the purposes of,
till we get through the appeal and briefing,
mobilization meaning the takeover of the guard under section 12406 we're going to allow it not making a
decision about the substance and the merits of it whether the grounds for taking over the
National Guard were present but stay in your barracks we're not letting you we're not letting
you deploy that's a win for judge Perry and for Chicago and the Illinois Attorney General
for sure. Now, well, it's only an administrative stay. And then we had, if you check the docket,
which of course I did, which is the electronic version of everything that's been filed or requested
to be filed in the case, you've got, I spotted America First Legal. We always follow them
because they're trading on our name. America First Legal, which is Stephen Miller's, the White
House deputy chief of staff, but he holds much more power than that title would reflect. He
his organization is filing a brief in support of Trump.
How many briefs does Trump get?
He gets his brief, you know, his Department of Justice brief.
He gets this shadow Department of Justice brief from Stephen Miller.
And then you had in the wake of all of this, that was Saturday.
Sunday, J.D. Vance goes on, Kristen Welker, meet the press,
and starts talking about the Insurrection Act again.
Let's play that clip.
Let me ask you, of course, there's a major legal battle underway
about the administration's deployment of the National Guard.
It does come, as NBC News is reporting, that the administration has been seriously discussing invoking the Insurrection Act.
That would give the president the power to direct federal troops to conduct law enforcement functions in the case of a national emergency.
Is that the case? Are you seriously considering invoking the Insurrection Act?
Well, the president's looking at all of his options.
Right now, he hasn't felt he needed to.
But we have to remember, why are we talking about this, Kristen?
Because crime has gotten out of control in our cities.
because our ICE agents, the people who are enforcing our immigration laws have faced a 1,000% increase in violent attacks against them.
We have people right now who are going out there, who are doing the job the president asked them to do, who are enforcing our immigration laws, they're being assaulted, they're being beaten, they're being shot at.
The problem here is not the Insurrection Act or whether we actually invoke it or not.
The problem is the fact that the entire media in this country cheered on by a few far-left lunatics have made,
It made it okay to tee off on American law enforcement.
We cannot accept that in the United States of America.
We want everybody, black or white, rich or poor to be safe in the United States of America.
Which is very consistent with what Donald Trump did a week or so earlier in the White House
when he's like, well, I hadn't thought about the Insurrection Act, but, you know, we could always do it.
I mean, look, his prior attorney general for about 10 minutes, Jeffrey Clark during 2020,
was promoting the use of the Insurrection Act to do things like seizing voting.
machines during the 2020 election. So the I-word has always been part of Donald Trump's vocabulary,
although many other things are not, obviously. Hey, everybody, Ben Myceles here from the Midas Touch
Network. I wanted to let you know about my podcast partner, Michael Popock's new law firm. It's called
the Popak firm. Michael Popock's pursuing his dream of starting his own law firm, really based on
the popular demand by all the Midas, Mighty and Legal A-E effort.
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.
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Give him a call. See if you have a case. It's thepopokfirm.com. The popock firm.com. Or you can call 877 Popak AF, P-O-P-O-K-A-F. So 1-877 P-O-P-O-K-A-F. Give Michael P-P-P-Pok a call. And I'm really proud of you, Popok. Thanks for all the hard work you're putting in.
Stephen Miller, though, is the scary guy. He's the Grim Reaper. As Gavin Newsom once said,
Stephen Miller is that guy, you know, that is in the hotel room in the dark that watches, that guy.
Here's a series of clips about Stephen Miller using the language of insurrection,
using the language almost from the very beginning of attacking Americans for and declaring them to be disloyal
when all they're doing is properly First Amendment dissenting.
Let's play some clips of Stephen Miller, who's also been using that language of insurrection against federal judges,
who've ruled against the Trump administration.
Let's roll the worst of Stephen Miller.
This is organized domestic terrorism.
The purpose of domestic terrorism is to obtain through violence and intimidation
and the threat of violence, a change in politics or policy
that cannot be obtained through lawful democratic means.
This is an all-out campaign of insurrection against the sovereignty of the United States
because the Democrat Party and those who are committing violence in this country,
do not believe in the legitimacy of the sovereign territory of the United States,
and they don't want any of these illegal aliens to go home.
So they want to cement by force, by violent force, the invasion that took place between 2021 and 2024.
Thank you.
Vote for the right to have a secure sovereign border and for the right to have a government
that puts American citizens ahead of illegal aliens.
We cannot conceive of a nation without a strong, secure border.
It is fundamental and essential to the idea of sovereignty.
and national survival to have control over who enters and doesn't enter the country.
So we're going to ignore these stupid white hippies that all need to go home and take a nap
because they're all over 90 years old and we're going to get back to the business of protecting
the American people and the citizens of Washington do soon.
I think what's happening here is that what the president has done is made clear the power
of federal law enforcement that was used for the last four years to harass and attack conservatives,
to harass and attack Christians, to go after law abiding families.
the power of law force under President Trump
is going to be used to get all the criminals,
all the violent offenders, all the murderers, all the cartels,
and all the domestic terrorists off our streets.
So whether you're Antifa, whether you're a domestic terrorist,
whether you are a violent gang member, a drug trafficker,
a trained-daragua killer, or anyone else is hurting our people,
President Trump is saying he's going to use his FBI,
his DOD, his ATF, his DEA,
to wipe you out, to put you behind bars,
to take you off the street, or to apply whatever legal consequence is necessary.
Now, what's at stake here is important.
And it's been framed by judges like Judge Imbergut and Judge Perry, who have said,
this is for the soul of America.
This is for the soul of our federalism that put our country together.
The power of the states, the power of the federal government,
the power of the states that needs to be respected under the 10th Amendment,
the sovereignty of the states that needs to be protected.
how we as a nation put up firewalls and draw lines in the sand to stop an overgrown out of control, petulant, vengeful president who's attacking Americans.
When you see video clips in Chicago, in Oregon, in D.C. of human beings being hogtied, gang tackled, pepper sprayed, shot in the head with pepperball.
including members of the clergy.
Just think that is a fellow American.
This isn't trend to Aragua.
This isn't Venezuelan narco-terrorists.
These aren't people that are being blown out of the water
in the Caribbean without due process.
These are Americans, whether they're American veterans,
American protesters.
You hear it in the language, right?
It seeps into their language.
They say it, just this greasy way in which they just say it out loud.
You heard J.D. Vance on the earlier clip,
radical left needs to be crushed.
You mean dissent in America?
Descent is not disloyalty.
And we have to continue to call it all out here.
What's going to happen next?
I hope the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals rejects Stephen Miller's
phony brief second bite at the apple by the Department of Justice effectively.
I hope they make the decision.
I'll know more about my prediction about how that Seventh Circuit's going to
go when I see how many Trumpers are on that panel?
You know, it's like, how many Trumpers does it take to screw up an American constitutional
republic?
We're going to find, we're going to find out.
And I'll report on that on LegalAF substack to give you some live reporting at the minute
all there.
That's the next step, briefing, the hearing.
I don't think we're going to get a ruling on the Ninth Circuit about Oregon for maybe
another week or two,ish, sometime at October.
This will be sometime October early.
November. And we just put a fine point on this. The wastefulness of the attack and the abuse of
Americans. Just for D.C., just for the D.C. takeover. It's already been calculated and estimated
that it's cost the American taxpayer $200 million. For what? For local policing by the military,
by picking up litter, by standing guard in front of national monuments?
$200 million.
Now multiply that.
Illinois, bigger,
Oregon, bigger.
We're talking about a billion-dollar muscle flex
by Donald Trump to shows who's the boss.
You know who's the boss?
We are.
We are the people.
Not the elected officials.
They last for a relatively short amount of time.
While we are the defenders of this constitutional republic,
We do it here. We meet here. This is our clubhouse. Might as touch. Legal A.F. I'm glad you're here. We're going to continue to follow it. Slide over to Legal A.F. YouTube. Hit the free subscribe button there as well. We're trying to get to that $1 million, sorry, 1 million subscriber magic number on that YouTube channel. The bigger we are, the more your voice is heard, the more your muscle flexes. Same thing for LegalAF substack. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popok.
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