Sept. 4 (UPI) — The District of Columbia has filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump for bringing in National Guard soldiers to police its streets.
The suit alleges that “the President has launched an unprecedented assault on the District’s sovereignty.”
“We are suing to defend D.C. home rule and stop the unlawful deployment of the National Guard,” said Washington, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb in an X post Thursday. “Our nation was founded on the fundamental principles of freedom and self-governance that are stake in this case.”
Schwalb posted several times to explain the situation.
“The National Guard deployment does not only undermine public safety,” he wrote in a separate post. “It also hurts D.C.’s economy — depressing vital industries like restaurants, hotels, and tourism.”
“And critically, it infringes on D.C.’s sovereign authority and right to self-governance under the Home Rule Act,” he added.
Schwalb went on to state that more troops arrived in the district this week and noted that President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order last week that “directs the creation of a dedicated D.C. National Guard unit to ‘enforce Federal law.'”
That order titled “Additional Measures to Address the Crime Emergency in the District of Columbia,” tells the Secretary of Defense to create “a specialized unit within the District of Columbia National Guard” that would be deputized to do as Schwalb described.
Around 2,300 National Guard troops have been deployed in Washington, D.C., since mid-August, who have joined with other federal agents and the District’s Metropolitan Police Department to ramp up patrols throughout the city.
Schwalb further declared that Trump’s use of the National Guard in the district is illegal under the Posse Comitatus Act, which bans the use of any part of the Army or Air Force to execute law enforcement unless authorized by the Constitution or an act of Congress.
“Yet the Administration launched a massive, indefinite law enforcement operation in DC under direct military command,” Schwalb wrote. “This is plainly illegal, and it threatens our democracy and civil liberties.”
He also declared that the deployment denies the District of the local autonomy granted by the Home Rule Act, under which the elected Council of the District of Columbia adopts laws and approves the District’s annual budget in conjunction with the District’s mayor.
The lawsuit comes at a time when House Republicans are considering legislation to remove Schwalb, who was elected to his post in 2022, and replace him with a presidential appointee, according to a Thursday report by The Washington Post.