A federal appeals court Thursday paused a lower court’s order to remove the National Guard from the streets of Washington, D.C., eight days after two members were attacked in broad daylight in the district.
The three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted the Trump administration’s request that the Nov. 20 decision finding the Guard presence illegal to be stayed “pending further order of this court.”
“The purpose of this administrative stay is to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the motion for stay pending appeal and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion,” wrote Judges Patricia Millett, Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao.
Millett was appointed by former President Barack Obama, and Katsas and Rao were appointed during President Donald Trump’s first term.
Roughly 2,000 National Guard troops in D.C. were originally expected to remain in the district through February, according to the lower court’s order.
Appeal considered after shooting
The stay comes just over a week after two West Virginia National Guard members were shot on Nov. 26 just blocks from the White House. U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died from her injuries the following day, Thanksgiving. U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, underwent surgery for critical injuries and remains hospitalized.
The suspected shooter, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who was living in Washington state, pleaded not guilty from his hospital bed during a virtual hearing in D.C. Superior Court Tuesday. Lakanwal is charged with first-degree murder while armed, possession of a firearm, and assault with the intent to kill.
The Trump administration filed the emergency motion to stay the lower judge’s order on the day of the shooting. The administration requested the circuit court issue a decision by Dec. 4.
Judge Jia Cobb, for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, found the administration’s deployment of more than 2,000 guard troops in the city illegal but stayed her Nov. 20 decision until Dec. 11 to give the administration time to appeal and remove the guard members from the district’s streets.
Guard armed
Trump initially mobilized 800 National Guard troops to the nation’s capital in August after claiming a “crime emergency” in the district, despite a documented three-decade low in crime.
Many were instructed they would be carrying service weapons, The Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 17. The White House effort was accompanied by a heightened U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement presence in the district.
Trump also federalized the district’s police force for 30 days as part of a district-wide crackdown. While the federalization of the police force expired, Trump has kept the National Guard in the district.
Since then, Republican governors from Louisiana, Ohio, South Carolina and West Virginia, among others, have agreed to send their own Guard members to the district.
The mobilization had been tied up in court for months.
