Federal appeals court allows National Guard to remain deployed in DC

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously sided with the Trump administration on Wednesday, allowing the continued deployment of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital. A three-judge panel paused a previous lower court order that had required President Donald Trump to send the guardsmen home pending an appeal. 

The appeals court noted that because DC is a federal district created by Congress, it would be likely that the Trump administration would win in a lawsuit filed by DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb. Schwalb sued the administration in September over the deployment, arguing that it illegally intruded on the city’s law enforcement authority. He had also requested a pause on the deployment while the case was pending.

Judge Patricia Millet, an Obama appointee, wrote in a ruling joined by Trump-appointed judges Neomi Rao and Gregory Katsas, that had the court not intervened, there would be a “profound level of disruption to the lives of thousands of service members who have been deployed for four months already.”

"The President’s order implicates a strong and distinctive interest in the protection of federal governmental functions and property within the Nation’s capital," Millett wrote.

The court did, however, indicate that while the deployment of the Guard in DC likely falls within the President’s authority, deployment in other cities is not the same.

"Deploying an out-of-state Guard to a non-consenting State to conduct law enforcement would be constitutionally troubling to our federal system of government," the order said. The judges did write that their order was preliminary and that their assessment of the case was “hurried.”

Because of the appeal court’s determination, the 2,220+ Guardsmen in DC may remain there pending any new legal developments.