Washington, DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb on Friday filed a lawsuit to block United States Attorney General Pam Bondi from taking over the US capital city’s police department.
The lawsuit accused the Trump administration of violating the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, a 1973 law that delegated certain powers over the city once held by the federal government to local government officials.
Schwalb argued in the lawsuit that the Home Rule Act gives the president of the United States a very limited set of powers over the governance of the city’s police force, as it states that the president may commandeer the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) if he “determines that special conditions of an emergency nature exist” that require the MPD to help fulfill “federal purposes.”
Schwalb