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(THE FEDERALIST) – In a major win for the Trump administration, a federal appellate court agreed on Wednesday that President Trump can deploy the National Guard to Washington, D.C. for the time being.
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In a unanimous ruling, a three-judge panel for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily froze a preliminary injunction issued last month by Biden-appointed District Judge Jia Cobb. That order — which was paused 21 days to give the government time to appeal — attempted to block the president from “deploying or requesting the deployment of” members of the National Guard to D.C.
The three-judge panel was comprised of Trump appointees Neomi Rao and Gregory Katsas and Obama appointee Patricia Millett, the latter of whom authored the unanimous opinion.
“Because the District of Columbia is a federal district created by Congress, rather than a constitutionally sovereign entity like the fifty States, the Defendants appear on this early record likely to prevail on the merits of their argument that the President possesses a unique power within the District — the seat of the federal government — to mobilize the Guard under” federal law, Millett wrote. “It also appears likely that the D.C. Code independently authorizes the deployment of the D.C. Guard.”
Millett went on to note that, if the circuit court were to allow Cobb’s injunction to take effect, it would likely “result in a profound level of disruption to the lives of thousands of service members who have been deployed [to D.C.] for four months already.” She further said that Trump’s August order deploying the Guard to the federal district “implicates a strong and distinctive interest in the protection of federal governmental functions and property within the Nation’s capital.”
“As for the District’s harms, our preliminary determination that the merits favor the Defendants means that the District has not identified any ongoing injury to its statutory interests. The other harms that the District identifies are not supported by the preliminary record before us,” Millett wrote.
Wednesday’s decision “does not bind” the merits panel that will conduct a more in-depth examination of the legal issues at play, according to the Obama appointee. Nor does it address the president’s deployment of State Guards to various cities in states across the country.
The battle over Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to restore law and order in Democrat-run cities is not exclusive to the nation’s capital.
The administration is currently engaged in a prolonged legal standoff with leftist-led Illinois over the president’s move to send service members into Chicago.
Back in October, Biden-appointed District Judge April Perry granted a request from Chicago and the Prairie State to issue a temporary restraining order blocking the deployment of Guard members into Illinois. This prompted the Trump administration to seek relief from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, which, in a three-judge ruling, “denied the administration’s motion for a stay pending appeal as to deployment [of the Guard], but continued to stay the portion of the order enjoining federalization,” according to Justia.
The federal government subsequently filed an emergency application for stay with the U.S. Supreme Court, which has yet to issue a decision on the request.
Other cities where the president’s deployment of National Guard troops are being contested in court include Portland, Oregon, and Los Angeles, California.
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This article was originally published in The Federalist.
