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A federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily paused a lower court ruling that had called for an end to the deployment of National Guard troops to the streets of Washington, D.C.
In a one-page order, a panel of appellate judges issued an administrative stay to give them more time to consider the issue, writing that their move “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion.” The Trump administration has asked for a longer-term pause of U.S. District Court Judge Jia Cobb’s ruling.
Cobb had concluded last month that President Trump’s military deployment in the nation’s capital, which includes a mixture of D.C. National Guard forces and Guard troops from other states, illegally intrudes on local officials’ authority to direct law enforcement in the district.
Cobb found that while the president does have authority to protect federal functioning and property, he can’t unilaterally deploy the D.C. National Guard to help with crime control as he sees fit or call in troops from other states. She put her order on hold for 21 days to allow the appeal by the Trump administration.
The Trump administration called Cobb’s ruling a “wholly unjustified incursion into the territory of both the President and Congress” in an appeals court filing last week.
“As we have always maintained, the President exercised his lawful authority to deploy the National Guard to D.C. We look forward to ultimate vindication on this issue,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told The Associated Press.
In August, Mr. Trump issued an executive order declaring a crime emergency in Washington. Within a month, more than 2,300 National Guard troops from eight states and the District were patrolling the city under the command of the Secretary of the Army. Mr. Trump also deployed hundreds of federal agents to assist in patrols.
District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued to challenge the Guard deployments. He asked the judge to bar the White House from deploying Guard troops without the mayor’s consent while the lawsuit plays out.
Schwalb’s office was not immediately available for comment on Thursday’s stay.
The court action comes eight days after two West Virginia National Guard members, Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, were ambushed as they patrolled a subway station three blocks from the White House. Beckstrom died on Nov. 27 from her injuries. Wolfe continues to recover. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national identified as the suspect and who was also shot during the confrontation, has been charged with murder. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
The administration has called for an additional 500 National Guard members to be deployed to Washington as a result of the shooting. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced this week that she was sending 100 military members as part of that buildup.
The administration has also deployed Guard troops to Los Angeles and tried to send troops into Chicago and Portland, Oregon, prompting other court challenges. A federal appeals court allowed the Los Angeles deployment, and the administration is appealing a judge’s decision in Portland that found the president did not have the authority to call up or deploy National Guard troops there.
