National Guard in DC

By Zak Failla From Daily Voice

A federal judge has ruled that the National Guard was illegally deployed in Washington, DC, following months of military patrols across the city, officials announced.

US District Judge Jia Cobb ruled that the federal government did not have the legal authority to deploy the DC National Guard or out-of-state Guard units for crime-deterrence patrols in the city on Thursday, Nov. 20. 

The court granted a preliminary injunction blocking the deployment but stayed the order for 21 days to allow time for appeal.

DC Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb said the ruling confirms what the District has argued from the start.

“From the beginning, we made clear that the US military should not be policing American citizens on American soil,” Schwalb said. 

“Normalizing the use of military troops for domestic law enforcement sets a dangerous precedent, where the President can disregard states’ independence and deploy troops wherever and whenever he wants – with no check on his military power.”

“This unprecedented federal overreach is not normal, or legal. It is long past time to let the National Guard go home – to their everyday lives, their regular jobs, their families, and their children,” he added.

The decision means more than 2,000 National Guard members who have been patrolling DC since August could be ordered to leave the city unless the federal government successfully appeals before the Dec. 11 deadline.

The ruling states that DC’s civilian authorities never requested military assistance, as required by law, and that the government used no legal process to bring out-of-state Guard troops into the District. 

The court found those deployments violated federal statutes governing the Guard and the Administrative Procedure Act.

Prosecutor argued the patrols blurred the line between policing and military force, placing troops in Metro stations, downtown corridors, parks, and neighborhoods during a period of rising federal-local conflict over public safety strategy.

No timeline has been announced for the federal government’s appeal.

The complete 61-page ruling can be found here.