What national guard troops can and can’t do in Washington

The roughly 2,000 National Guardsmen deployed to Washington, D.C. have been tasked with assisting local law enforcement, but the lines separating where the troops’ mission ends and the police officers’ begins could get blurry.

And with discussions of future deployments to Chicago or other cities — likely without permission or invitation of governors — legal issues around the troops could be more complicated in the future.

Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson told reporters on Aug. 14 that the National Guardsmen “will not be arresting people,” but they are allowed to “temporarily limit the movement of an individual” under certain conditions. Because the operation is in Washington, the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, does not apply because troops are under state activation orders, or “Tit