D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued to block President Donald Trump’s National Guard deployment in the District on Thursday, as Congress moved to let Trump’s emergency control over local police expire on Wednesday.
Schwalb asked the D.C. District Court to declare Trump’s deployment of more than 2,200 National Guard troops from seven states and D.C. unconstitutional and to issue a permanent injunction, alleging that the deployment is unconstitutional and a violation of federal law. This marks his second lawsuit against the federal government since Trump ordered the takeover, and it comes as congressional leaders declined to extend the 30-day federal control over the Metropolitan Police Department.
White House officials have said Trump plans to extend National Guard deployment until the end of December, while Mayor Muriel Bowser and other local officials are working to end to the president’s “crime emergency” while maintaining greater cooperation and collaboration with federal law enforcement officers beyond the 30-day period. Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson indicated Bowser’s actions assuaged concerns in Congress.
Republican Congressional leaders will not hold a vote to extend Trump’s emergency authority over D.C. police before it expires on Sept. 10, a decision a senior Senate staffer told the Washington Post was reached in mutual agreement with the White House. Congress would need to pass an extension for the takeover of local law enforcement to proceed past the 30-day limit.
Schwalb said in the suit Trump’s actions — including ordering guard members to conduct law enforcement, refusing to allow the District to issue orders for troops within their jurisdiction and allowing troops to carry weapons — go against federal law and the Constitution. Schwalb said in the suit the Trump administration’s failure to seek and obtain consent from the Mayor violates the D.C. Home Rule Act and the Emergency Management Assistance Compact.
“The forced military occupation of the District of Columbia violates our local autonomy and basic freedoms,” Schwalb said in a statement on X, formerly know as Twitter. “It must end.”
The suit argues that D.C. residents did not ask for the deployments, adding that the troops’ presence — which began on Aug. 11 — is “unlawful” and a violation of the D.C. Home Rule Act. On Aug. 11, Trump declared a “crime emergency” in the city and invoked Section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act, giving him the power to bring the MPD under federal control.
Schwalb also alleges in the suit that Trump is overstepping his position in the city by attempting to police the District, something that only the D.C. mayor can do.
Section 740 of the Home Rule Act allows Trump to federalize the MPD for up to 30 days, after which the emergency invocation automatically expires unless Congress approves an extension. The D.C. National Guard also answers to Trump, a unique stipulation because D.C. is not a state and lacks a governor.
White House Spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Trump has the power to use the National Guard in D.C. to protect federal property and aide law enforcement.
“This lawsuit is nothing more than another attempt — at the detriment of D.C. residents and visitors — to undermine the President’s highly successful operations to stop violent crime in D.C.,” Jackson said.
A Federal District Court judge found Tuesday that Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles in June after protests against immigration raids was unlawful, although the ruling applied solely to the state of California. Around 300 National Guard troops remain deployed in Los Angeles.
This is the second lawsuit the D.C. Attorney General has filed against the federal government since Trump declared the emergency in mid-August. On Aug. 15, Schwalb sued the Trump administration for their “brazen usurpation” of the District’s ability to self-govern, moving to stop U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi from assuming control of the MPD.
In a deal later that day struck between Trump administration and D.C. lawyers, parties agreed MPD Chief Pamela Smith remained in charge of the department. That same day, the Department of Justice issued an order directing the MPD to assist with federal immigration law enforcement.
Schwalb alleges the federal government and Trump are violating the militia and district clauses of the Constitution, as well as the Posse Comitatus Act and D.C. Home Rule Act.
The militia and district clauses empower governors with command over their states’ guard and grants Congress the power to control the District, which it used to enact the 1974 Home Rule Act. Schwalb said Trump violated the militia clause by commanding seven states national guards in the District and the Home Rule Act by asserting control over police, a matter the act explicitly delegates to the mayor.
He said the Department of Defense’s command of Joint Task Force-DC — the law enforcement operation encompassing all active national guard troops in the District — violates the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits using any federal military resources to conduct law enforcement against civilians. He also said the deployment has damaged the city’s economy, including a downturn in business in tourism, which the suit says is a significant portion of the D.C. economy and tax base.
“No American jurisdiction should be involuntarily subjected to military occupation,” the suit reads.
Schwalb’s suit came after D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Aug. 27 the National Guard’s presence in the city — particularly when masked — was contributing to a decline in trust between law enforcement and residents, although she did not highlight any other concerns with the over 2,000 troops present in the city.
Bowser issued an executive order Tuesday setting up a dedicated operations center for coordination between federal and local law enforcement and directing local officials do as far as D.C. law allows. She said the order creates a framework for sharing resources between federal and local law enforcement after Trump’s emergency expires and that it is not intended to act as an extension of the emergency but to usher it out.
“We don’t need a presidential emergency,” Bowser said at a press conference announcing the operations center.
The Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission passed a resolution last week condemning the federalization of the MPD and deployment of the National Guard, demanding their immediate removal. The resolution also demands Congress not to vote to extend the 30-day federalization, return over $1 billion in locally raised funds Congress has withheld from the District and require federal law enforcement to display identification.
