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The District of Columbia’s attorney general sued the Trump administration Thursday over the ongoing presence of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital, arguing the deployment amounts to a military occupation that violates the district’s right to self-rule.
President Donald Trump’s deployment of D.C. National Guard troops and units from states outside the district violates laws against using the military for domestic law enforcement and a 1973 federal law allowing the district to govern itself, D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb wrote in a complaint in federal court in the district.
“No American jurisdiction should be involuntarily subjected to military occupation,” the complaint says, adding that Trump’s “command and control of out-of-state National Guard units when they are in state militia status violates the Constitution and federal law.”
The administration’s actions, which Trump has characterized as an attempt to control crime in the city, “flout the Posse Comitatus Act,” a 19th-century law, and other sections of federal law that “enshrine the nation’s foundational prohibition on the participation of military forces in domestic law enforcement absent the most extreme exigencies, such as an invasion or rebellion,” the complaint said.
“Defendants have established a massive, seemingly indefinite law enforcement operation in the District subject to direct military command. The danger that such an operation poses to individual liberty and democratic rule is self-evident,” the complaint said.
Despite a Tuesday morning ruling from a federal judge in California that called Trump’s use of military personnel for law enforcement in Los Angeles illegal, the president has continued to explore further use of Guard units for what he said is crime prevention in other U.S. cities.
The suit asks U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb to block the administration from any further use of National Guard troops for law enforcement and to block states’ National Guard troops from operating in the district.
White House spokespeople did not return a message seeking comment Thursday.
Out-of-state Guard deployments questioned
States with a military presence in the district cited in the suit are Louisiana, South Dakota, Ohio, West Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi and South Carolina.
Those states’ Republican governors all responded to requests from Trump to send Guard troops, according to the complaint.
But Trump did not federalize any of the state National Guard units patrolling the district, meaning they remain legally under the command of their governors and cannot enter another state or the district without a request from the governor or the mayor of Washington, D.C., according to the suit.
Late last month, Schwalb’s office sent letters to the leaders of states that had deployed troops to the district, asking for information “regarding the factual and legal basis for” their decision to send troops.
Only Tennessee responded, and offered only limited information, the complaint said.
While legally still under their governors’ control, the suit says the out-of-state troops are in practice under the control of Trump and the U.S. Department of Defense.
Police-military separation tested by Trump
As president, Trump does control the D.C. National Guard. But he cannot use its members for domestic law enforcement under the Posse Comitatus Act, the complaint said.
D.C. and out-of-state National Guard troops have been doing just that, the complaint said.
U.S. Marshals, a federal law enforcement agency, has deputized at least some troops in the district. The troops, who are armed with service weapons, have patrolled district streets, including in residential areas, the complaint said.
“These are law enforcement activities,” the suit said.
While the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this year that Trump has broad authority to federalize state National Guard troops — even over a governor’s objection — U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer ruled this week that those troops still may not engage in law enforcement activity.
Trump, who has mused about sending troops to other cities including Chicago, Baltimore and New Orleans, is testing the legal limits of the Guard’s ability to assist police forces, University of Houston Law Center Professor Christopher Mirasola said in an interview this week before the District of Columbia suit was filed.
While a bedrock principle of U.S. democracy, the separation of military from law enforcement is governed more by norms than laws, Mirasola said, giving the administration leeway to at least try to stretch what has been considered acceptable.
“The administration is pushing the bounds of every existing legal theory that’s out there for domestic military deployment,” he said. “It’s absolutely corrosive of our democracy, because I think there’s a potential for a real shift in how we think about the military’s role in our domestic affairs.”
By Jacob Fischler, News From The States
