SCOTUS Blocks Trump in Chicago plus Blue Wall Cracks, PA Turns a little Redder

Summary

The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

Episode: SCOTUS Blocks Trump in Chicago plus Blue Wall Cracks, PA Turns a little Redder
Date: December 27, 2025
Host: Ben Ferguson

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Overview

In this episode of The 47 Morning Update, Ben Ferguson examines two major political developments:

1. The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision blocking President Trump from sending National Guard troops to Chicago to assist ICE,
2. A significant surge in GOP voter registrations in Pennsylvania that is sharply reducing the long-standing Democratic advantage.

The show delivers Ferguson’s characteristic, fast-paced, and direct style, mixing legal summaries, political perspective, numbers-driven analysis, and pointed commentary.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s National Guard Deployment in Chicago

[03:16–10:15]

• Background:
  Trump attempted to federalize and deploy 300 Illinois National Guard troops to Chicago to protect ICE agents from violent rioters—an effort aimed at the city’s sanctuary policy.
  A federal judge appointed by Biden blocked the move with a restraining order; the administration appealed, but the Supreme Court declined to stay the lower court’s order.

• SCOTUS Ruling Details:

  • Decision: 6-3 against Trump administration.
  • Majority’s logic: The administration failed to “identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute laws in Illinois.”
  • Relying on inherent constitutional authority is insufficient unless a specific statute is invoked.

• Justices’ Opinions:

  • Majority (including Roberts, Sotomayor, Kagan, Barrett, Jackson): Backed the order penned by Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
  • Dissent: Justice Alito, joined by Thomas, argued, “The protection of federal officers from potentially lethal attacks should not be thwarted… I therefore respectfully dissent.” [10:00]
  • Justice Gorsuch filed a separate concurring opinion.

• Ben Ferguson’s Take:
  Ferguson criticizes Illinois Governor Pritzker as a “hardcore leftist radical” and slams sanctuary city policies:

  • “Sanctuary cities destroy people's—American citizens’—lives. That’s one of the things we should just straight up start with.” [09:30]
  • Stresses that President Trump’s motive was public safety, even in liberal strongholds:
    “He wants to keep people safe. Even if you’re in a liberal area, even if you voted against him. That’s important.” [10:10]

• Broader Rights Debate:
  Raises whether states or the federal government have ultimate authority in fighting crime and managing immigration, dismissing the states-only approach as “incredibly naive and incredibly stupid.”

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2. Pennsylvania’s Voter Registration Surge for the GOP

[10:15–13:25]

• New Party Dynamics:
  A “rapid shift” in Pennsylvania’s registration landscape: GOP nets 12,488 voter registrations over Democrats in a single week.

  • Democratic advantage fell from almost 1,000,000 in 2016 to just 49,558 now.
  • “Since the 2024 election cycle, Democrats…lost 449,000 registered voters, nearly twice the 222,000 lost by Republicans.” [12:55]
  • Since last year, GOP netted 82,373 new registrations over Democrats.

• Trends & Implications:
  The trend is long-running, with recent gains continuing to “chip away at the Democratic edge that’s been built over decades in a key battleground state.”

  • Ferguson: “This surge…builds on a longer trend of GOP gains that have significantly altered the voter registration landscape in Pennsylvania.” [11:45]

• Context with Trump’s Second Term:
  Attributes some of the shift to economic optimism under the Trump administration:

  • “Trump, who carried Pennsylvania in 2024 by 50.4% of the vote over Democrat Kamala Harris, has since highlighted economic gains.” [12:40]
  • At a recent speech, Trump: creation of 60,000+ jobs, $100B in new investments, 4,000 in manufacturing.

• Takeaway Message:
  Ferguson concludes:
  “If you don’t think Make America Great Again is working, you’re not paying attention.” [13:30]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On SCOTUS Chicago Ruling:

  “Sanctuary cities destroy people’s—American citizens’—lives. That’s one of the things we should just straight up start with.”
  — Ben Ferguson [09:30]

  “The protection of federal officers from potentially lethal attacks should not be thwarted… I therefore respectfully dissent.”
  — Justice Alito’s dissent, quoted by Ferguson [10:00]

  “He wants to keep people safe. Even if you’re in a liberal area, even if you voted against him.”
  — Ben Ferguson [10:10]

• On Pennsylvania:

  “Since the 2024 election cycle, Democrats and—pay attention to this—had lost 449,000 registered voters, nearly twice the 222,000 lost by Republicans.”
  — Ben Ferguson [12:55]

  “If you don’t think Make America Great Again is working, you’re not paying attention.”
  — Ben Ferguson [13:30]

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [03:16] — Ben launches into the main news: SCOTUS and Chicago.
• [05:35] — Reading portions of the Supreme Court opinion verbatim.
• [09:00] — Discussion of state vs federal rights, sanctuary cities.
• [10:15] — Transition to Pennsylvania voter registration.
• [11:50] — Data breakdown on party registration trends.
• [12:40] — Economic impact and Trump’s claims in Pennsylvania.
• [13:30] — Concluding remarks on GOP momentum and MAGA.

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Tone & Style

• Direct, critical, and unapologetically conservative.
• Ben Ferguson mixes strong opinion with detailed data, quoting legal text and contextualizing with national political trends.
• Repeated emphasis on the battle between progressive and conservative policies at both state and federal levels.

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This summary provides a comprehensive overview for listeners and non-listeners alike, spotlighting the legal and political issues covered and distilling the episode’s energetic and pointed commentary.

Transcript

[Ben Ferguson]

This is an iHeart podcast.

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[Ben Ferguson]

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[Ben Ferguson]

I'm waiting for a phone call. This is the greatest First Lady. People love our first lady. Right honey? Yeah, look at her. How elegant is the First Lady. Look at you. You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. Good Friday morning. It's nice to have you with us on the 47 Morning Update and we've got two big stories for you this morning. The Supreme Court of the United States of America is keeping Donald Trump from sending 300 National Guard troops to Chicago. So what will the President do next? We'll explain it to you. Also, the GOP has netted 12,000 voter registration surge in Pennsylvania in one week as Democrat lead shrinks over time. Will explain it to you. Operation Overlord the D day beaches. You and I share a passion for history. So I hope you'll join me next spring on the D day beaches in Normandy. That's right, the invasion that sealed Hitler's doom. Omaha and Utah. You're going to discover the sacred patch of sand with me. 10 days in Europe, luxury hotels and fully escorted by America's leading expert on France and the D day invasion. Kin chase. 57 57. And that includes your airfare. Your going to stand at General Patton's grave site, Baston Point, du Har and Mulberry Harbor. Call my friends at Conservative Tours on your cell phone. Just dial pound250 and say the keyword Conservative Tours or go to Conservative Tours.com an A plus rating with the BBB. All your sightseeing in Paris too. Dial pound250. Say the keyword Conservative Tours. You'll have the option to receive a one time auto dialed text message from iHeartMedia. It's the 47 Morning Update and it right now. Where do we even start now when it comes to the victories that the President has given us and how the media continues to have egg on their face as they lie and they get it wrong. We also know that the President of the United States of America has had to fight other battles. That includes the legal battles that are coming at him as Democrats will appeal on anything to the Supreme Court. Now the Supreme Court has ruled against President Donald Trump's plan to Federalize and send 300 Illinois National Guardsmen to the sanctuary city of Chicago to help protect Immigration Customs Enforcement agents from the violent rioters there. You gotta understand in Chicago and in Illinois, you've got a hardcore leftist radical governor in Pritzker who doesn't care that he was the death capital of America in Chicago. Now in October, Trump had sought to deploy the National Guard to assist ICE agents, but a federal judge appointed by former President Joe Biden blocked the effort with a temporary restraining order. When the Trump administration asked the U.S. court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit to stay the judge's order, the panel of judges denied the administration's plea. That is when the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to stay the federal judge's order so National Guardsmen could be deployed to Chicago. Well, this week SCOTUS ruled in a 6, 3 decision that the Trump administration, quote, has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute laws, the laws in Illinois and therefore the administration's application for stay was denied. Now, at the preliminary stage, the government has failed to identify a source, they say, of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois. The President has not invoked a statute that provides an exception for this. Instead, he relied on inherent constitutional authority that according to the government, allows him to use the military to protect federal personnel and property. But the government also claimed, consistent with the long standing view of the executive branch, that performing such protective functions does not constitute executing the laws within the meeting of of the act. If that is correct, it is hard to see how performing those functions could constitute executing the laws under 124,063. This court does not lightly assume that Congress silently, silently attached attaches different meanings to the same term in the same term in the same or related statutes. Thus, at the least in this posture, the government has not carried its burden to show that the permit that this permits the present to federalize the Guard in the exercise of inherent authority to protect federal personnel and property in Illinois. We need not and do not address the reviewability of findings made by the President under 124063 or any other statute. The application to for stay is denied. Now Justice Robert Sotomayor Kagan, Amy Coney, Barrett, Brown, Jackson. They all backed the unsigned order by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who wrote a concurring opinion. Justice Alito wrote a dissenting opinion which Justice Thomas joined. The Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a sending opinion as well, saying this. Whatever one may think about the current administration's enforcement of the immigration laws or the way ICE has conducted its operations, the protection of federal officers from potentially lethal attacks should be thwarted, alito wrote in these dissenting opinion. I therefore respectfully dissent. Now this all goes back to the issue of if you are dealing with individuals who refuse to abide by the laws of the land and break the federal laws, should you as a citizen be held hostage in that scenario? I would argue and say absolutely not. Now there are many out there that believe that the states should have the ultimate rights on fighting crime and dealing with illegal immigration. If they want to be sanctuary cities, that's what they should be able to be. I think that is incredibly naive and incredibly stupid. Sanctuary cities destroy people's American citizens lives. I think that's one of the things we should just straight up start with. Not only do they destroy people's lives, but I also think that what the President has said here is he wants to keep people safe. Even if you're in a liberal area, even if you voted against him. That's important. To put that into context, this is a President that's sitting in the national garden of places like Memphis and Chicago and Illinois, et cetera. And why is he doing it? Because he wants to save people's lives. That's it. He wants to save people's lives. Now story number two. This is what we're witnessing in Pennsylvania. A rapid shift in Pennsylvania's voter registration landscape has added to the Republican Party's long term momentum in the state. It's the swing state. A recent data shows a notable weekly gain that continues to chip away at the Democratic edge that's been built over decades in a key battleground state. According to the newly released report today, Republicans achieved a NET game of 12,488 voter registrations over the Democrats in a single week. This gain reflects a continuation of broader momentum for the GOP in Pennsylvania, where the Democratic advantage has been steadily shrinking over the past 10 years. As of now, Democrats do hold a registration lead of only 49,558 voters. Let me give you that in comparison to 2016, when Trump ran for president the first time Democrats had a lead when it came to registered voters of almost a million more in Pennsylvania 916,000 change in 2016. That number has now dropped to 49,000. Now you compare that with the same period last year, Republicans have netted 82,373 new registrations over the Democrats. The surge also helped with the recent efforts by Democrats to reactivate dormant voters and left leaning strongholds it built. It builds on a longer trend of GOP gains that have significantly altered the voter registration landscape in Pennsylvania as well. Now, long term erosion of the Democratic voter registration advantage in Pennsylvania is easily easy to document. In August, for example, Democrats lead a drop to just 59,153 voters out of the more than 8.3 million registered in the state. That represents one of the narrowest gaps in recent history. The data also shows that since the 2024 election cycle, Democrats and pay attention to this had lost 449,000 registered voters, nearly twice the 222,000 lost by Republicans. That results in a net gain of over 227,000 voters for the GOP. Now this shift has occurred in tandem with economic development under President Donald Trump's second term. Trump, who carried Pennsylvania in 2024 by with 50.4% of the vote over Democrat Kamala Harris, has since highlighted economic gains in the state. In December speech, you may have seen it the other day at Mount Pocono, the President cited the creation of more than 60,000 jobs, including 4,000 in manufacturing and nearly 100 billion in new investments in the state. If you don't think Make America Great Again is working, you're not paying attention. Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now and for more in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson Podcast and we will see you back here on Monday morning.

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