U.S. District Judge ordered a halt to the Trump administration’s unlawful deployment of the National Guard to Washington, D.C.
WASHINGTON, DC – Judge Jia M. Cobb today granted the District of Columbia’s motion for preliminary relief and denied the government’s motion to dismiss in the D.C. government’s lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s deployment of National Guard troops in D.C. She found that the federal government had exceeded its authority in deploying the D.C. National Guard for “non-military, crime-deterrence missions in the absence of a request from the city’s civil authorities,” and that the federal government lacked statutory authority to support its requests for assistance from and calling of out-of-state National Guards to the District.
“We are very pleased with today’s decision, which protects D.C.’s autonomy and ensures that District residents have a voice in how our community is policed,” said Madeleine Gates, Associate Counsel at the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. “Today’s ruling stands as a victory for Washingtonians and D.C. Home Rule and makes clear that federal power can only be exercised within the limits of the law.”
In September, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee and the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia (ACLU-DC), filed an amicus brief in the lawsuit on behalf of themselves and: Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, Bread for the City, Children’s Law Center, DC Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, Disability Rights DC at University Legal Services, Legal Aid DC, School Justice Project, Tzedek DC, and Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, calling for an end to the National Guard’s law enforcement role in D.C.
Judge Cobb stayed her ruling for twenty-one days “to permit orderly proceedings on appeal.”
The judge’s decision in District of Columbia v. Donald J. Trump, Case No. 25-cv-3005 (JMC) (D.D.C.) is available here.
# # #
The Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs works to create legal, economic, and social equity through litigation, client and public education and public policy advocacy. While we fight discrimination against all people, we recognize the central role that current and historic race discrimination plays in sustaining inequity and recognize the critical importance of identifying, exposing, combatting, and dismantling the systems that sustain racial oppression.