A federal judge has delivered a major setback to the Trump administration’s ongoing security operations in Washington, ruling that the months-long use of National Guard troops in the capital overstepped presidential authority. The decision pauses the deployment but leaves room for the White House to challenge it.
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb determined that President Donald Trump’s move to place Guard troops throughout Washington, D.C., amounted to an unlawful intrusion on the authority of local leaders who are responsible for directing policing in the district. Although she issued an order to end the deployment, she delayed enforcement for 21 days to allow the administration time to appeal.
The ruling was on the back of a lawsuit filed by District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb, who argued that the president had no right to call in Guard troops without the city’s consent. Schwalb asked the court to block any future deployment while the legal battle continues. Dozens of states joined the case, dividing sharply along partisan lines.
Judge Cobb concluded that the president may intervene to safeguard federal operations and property but cannot independently use the D.C. National Guard for routine crime control or draw troops from other states to perform those duties.
Schwalb said the ruling should mark the end of the deployment. “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,” he said.
The White House responded by defending the president’s actions.
“President Trump is well within his lawful authority to deploy the National Guard in Washington, D.C., to protect federal assets and assist law enforcement with specific tasks,” spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said. “This lawsuit is nothing more than another attempt at the detriment of DC residents to undermine the President’s highly successful operations to stop violent crime in DC.”
Tensions in the district have flared up since August, when Trump declared a crime emergency and authorized a sweeping security response. More than 2,300 National Guard troops from eight states and the district were mobilized within weeks, operating under the direction of the Secretary of the Army. Federal agents were also assigned to patrols, expanding the footprint of federal enforcement across the city, AP reported.
Similar deployments in other major cities have sparked their own legal fights. A federal appeals court allowed the administration’s deployment in Los Angeles, while a judge in Portland blocked Trump’s attempt to send National Guard troops into the city. That case is now on appeal. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is considering an emergency request from the administration seeking permission to deploy Guard units in the Chicago region to support immigration enforcement after a lower court halted the move indefinitely.
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In Washington, the timeline for winding down the operation remains uncertain. Lawyers in Schwalb’s office told the court that Guard troops are expected to continue operating in the city through at least next summer unless the deployment is stopped.
“Our constitutional democracy will never be the same if these occupations are permitted to stand,” attorneys for the district argued.
Government lawyers countered that Congress explicitly granted the president authority over the D.C. National Guard, insisting that unwinding the deployment would make little sense. “There is no sensible reason for an injunction unwinding this arrangement now, particularly since the District’s claims have no merit,” Justice Department attorneys wrote.
The administration has authorized Guard members in Washington to work as special deputies of the U.S. Marshals Service. Schwalb’s office said this has effectively turned out-of-state soldiers into a federalized police force within the district, heightening tensions with residents and drawing resources away from local agencies.
“Every day that this lawless incursion continues, the District suffers harm to its sovereign authority to conduct local law enforcement as it chooses,” the district’s lawyers wrote.
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