A lower court had blocked the deployment, finding that the president violated the US Constitution and local D.C. law.
A federal appeals court on Dec. 17 allowed President Donald Trump’s use of District of Columbia National Guard troops in the nation’s capital to continue while an appeal of a lower court order blocking the deployment plays out.
Trump has said the troops were needed to deal with crime and violence in the District of Columbia and support federal immigration law enforcement efforts there.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted a temporary stay of U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb’s Nov. 20 ruling.
Cobb had found that the deployment runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution and unlawfully interferes with local officials’ authority to control law enforcement in the District of Columbia.
The appeals court said it was granting the federal government’s motion for a stay pending appeal “because the District of Columbia is a federal district created by Congress, rather than a constitutionally sovereign entity like the 50 states.”
The federal government appears likely to prevail on the merits of its argument “that the president possesses a unique power within the district—the seat of the federal government—to mobilize the Guard under 32 U.S.C. Section 502(f),” the appeals court said.
“It also appears likely that the D.C. Code independently authorizes the deployment of the D.C. Guard,” it said.
The order follows the Nov. 26 shooting of two West Virginia National Guard members stationed near the White House in Washington, which left one dead and another in the hospital.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
