A federal court today ruled that President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. was likely unlawful and inflicted serious harm on the District’s right to govern itself.
The Trump administration is deploying out-of-state National Guard troops to Democratic-run cities across the country.
These military invasions represent a deeply troubling and anti-democratic attempt to extend federal power and trample the authority of sovereign states and their populations.
U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb ruled that the Trump administration exceeded its authority by deploying the National Guard for crime deterrence, handing a significant legal victory to city officials who called the move an unlawful overreach.
Cobb ordered the tyrannical administration to halt the deployment of more than 2,000 troops while a lawsuit proceeds. However, she paused her ruling for 21 days to allow the administration to appeal.
In a 61-page opinion, Cobb wrote that the deployment caused the District “irreparable harm” by usurping its powers under the Home Rule Act.
“The District may not be a sovereign like a state is, but it can nevertheless exercise delegated sovereign powers and is therefore injured by being unlawfully deprived of those powers,” Cobb wrote in a court order.
On Aug. 11, Trump ordered the National Guard deployed to deter crime in the District of Columbia. National guard units from South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, West Virginia, Georgia, and Alabama helped usurp law enforcement agencies in the capital.
“The Court concludes that Plaintiff is suffering an irreparable harm to its sovereign powers under the Home Rule Act, which are being usurped by Defendants’ unlawful actions,” Cobb wrote.
She found the administration lacked the statutory authority to deploy the D.C. National Guard for non-military policing or to request troops from other states without a request from local civil authorities.
“From the beginning, we made clear that the U.S. military should not be policing American citizens on American soil,” said D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb. “It is long past time to let the National Guard go home.”
A separate ruling earlier this week temporarily blocked Tennessee’s National Guard deployment in Memphis, finding that Republican Gov. Bill Lee “acted beyond his authority.”
Lee initiated the deployment into Memphis in coordination with Trump and also sent Tennessee’s troops to D.C. at his request.
A spokesperson for Trump, Abigail Jackson, said in a written statement that the Republican tyrant was “within his lawful authority” and called the lawsuit an attempt to “undermine the President’s highly successful operations to stop violent crime in D.C.”
“There is generally no public interest in the perpetuation of unlawful agency action,” the court concluded. “There is a substantial public interest in having governmental agencies abide by the federal laws that govern their existence and operations.”
The ruling is a temporary injunction, not a final judgment in the case.
The Trump administration is expected to appeal.