MILITARY | Q&A

A debate emerged over a nearly 1 50-year-old law that reg-ulates when federal troops can intervene in state issues.

About 800 National Guard troops filed into Washington, D.C., this month after Trump said — without substantiation — that they were needed to reduce crime in the nation's capital. Thousands of miles away, a judge in California heard arguments about whether the president's decision to federalize Guard personnel in Los Angeles violated federal law. The cases mainly hinge on the Posse Comitatus Act; experts say that in both cases there are clear limitations to the law's enforcement.

Trump also created militarized zones along the U.S.-Mexico border, part of a major shift that thrust the military into immigration enforcement like never before.

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