Earlier this month, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld a lower court injunction that blocked President Donald Trump from using National Guard troops to protect ICE facilities in Chicago.

Although Trump's solicitor general asked the Supreme Court to overturn the bombshell decision, it has opted to delay. 

Justices ask for additional briefs to be filed

That's according to Chicago's ABC 7, which reported that America's highest judicial body released an unsigned order on Wednesday.

In it, justices instructed the parties that additional briefs are to be filed by November 10, with reply briefs due on November 17.

At issue is United States Code (USC) Section 12406, which provides that the president may deploy National Guard personnel when he is or she is "unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States."

The Supreme Court is particularly focused on the meaning of "regular forces," a term which is not defined under federal legislation.

ABC 7 cited the justices' brief submission deadlines as evidence that a final decision on the matter will not be forthcoming for some weeks.

Solicitor general says ruling "intrudes on the president’s authority"

Fox News noted that General D. John Sauer laid out the Trump administration's arguments in support of deploying the National Guard in a brief submitted on October 18.

Sauer maintained that the district court's decision "intrudes on the president’s authority and needlessly puts federal personnel and property at risk."

He pointed to the "disturbing and recurring pattern" of ICE agents being met with "prolonged, coordinated, violent resistance that threatens their lives and safety and systematically interferes with their ability to enforce federal law."

Sauer asserted that this "resistance succeeds to an alarming degree in its aim of obstructing federal agents from enforcing federal immigration law."

Sauer: ICE agents are "left to fend for themselves"

"Federal agents are forced to desperately scramble to protect themselves and federal property, allocating resources away from their law enforcement mission to conduct protective operations instead," Sauer pointed out.

"Receiving tepid support from local forces, they are often left to fend for themselves in the face of violent, hostile mobs," the solicitor general observed.

"Confronted with intolerable risks of harm to federal agents and coordinated, violent opposition to the enforcement of federal law, the president lawfully determines that he is unable to enforce the laws of the United States with the regular forces and calls up the National Guard to defend federal personnel, property and functions in the face of ongoing violence," he added.