DC lawsuit challenges Trump's National Guard deployment as a forced
'military occupation'
[September 05, 2025]
By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and GARY FIELDS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The District of Columbia on Thursday challenged
President Donald Trump’s use of the National Guard in Washington, asking
a federal court to intervene even as he plans to send troops to other
cities in the name of driving down crime.
Brian Schwalb, the district's elected attorney general, said in a
lawsuit that the deployment, which now involves more than 1,000 troops,
is an illegal use of the military for domestic law enforcement.
“No American jurisdiction should be involuntarily subjected to military
occupation,” Schwalb wrote.
The White House said deploying the Guard to protect federal assets and
assist law enforcement is within Trump's authority as president.
“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.,” spokeswoman
Abigail Jackson said.
Members of the D.C. National Guard have had their orders extended
through December, according to a Guard official. While that does not
necessarily mean all those troops will serve that long, it is a strong
indication that their role will not wind down soon.
The Republican president has credited the weekslong surge in Washington
with reining in crime and said he plans to send the National Guard into
Chicago and Baltimore, despite staunch opposition in those Democrat-led
cities. In the nation's capital, Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, has
backed up some of Trump’s claims that crime is down during the takeover.
Still, data shows and critics argue that crime was already falling
before the surge.
Bowser said Thursday that her focus is on preparing for when the
emergency ends, which under the law would be Sept. 10, unless Congress
extends it. In the order she issued this week, that preparation centered
on how the District could best coordinate with and communicate with the
federal law enforcement agencies that will likely remain in contact with
the city’s citizens.
A federal judge in California ruled on Tuesday that Trump’s deployment
of National Guard troops to Los Angeles after protests over immigration
raids in June was illegal. It does not directly apply to Washington,
where the president has more control over the Guard than in states.
Several GOP-led states have added National Guard troops to the ranks of
those patrolling the streets and neighborhoods of the nation's capital.
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District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, left, and District of
Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb walk out of federal court in
Washington, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, FIle)
Schwalb's filing contends the deployment also violates Washington's
Home Rule Act, signed by President Richard Nixon in 1973, and
wrongly asserts federal control over units from other states.
The lawsuit is the second from Schwalb — whose office is separate
from Washington’s federal U.S. attorney, a presidential appointee —
against the Trump administration since Trump asserted control over
the city’s police department and sent in the Guard. Those actions
have been met with protests from some residents.
Violent crime has been an issue in the capital for years, though
data showed it was on the decline when Trump intervened with an
executive order on Aug. 11.
Bowser has pointed to a steep drop in offenses such as carjackings
since it began, while also expressing reservations about the use of
the Guard from other states.
There are clear divides between some D.C. Council members and
Bowser, whom critics have accused of acquiescing to the
administration.
Speaking at a Free DC “Federal Forces Out Now” news conference on
Capitol Hill, one councilmember, Robert White, said his own young
daughters do not see the military personnel and officers as
protectors.
“They are here to catch them, to condemn them, to take away their
rights,” he said.
White said when history is written about this moment “we will have
to justify what we did and did not do. I’m not prepared to say that
I capitulated. I’m prepared to stay the course. I’m not prepared to
say I went along to get along.”
He encouraged the D.C. Council, Congress, the mayor and the
district’s attorney general to “stand together not in fear, not in
compliance, but against an authoritarian takeover of our city.”
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