(Reuters) -In a rare use of the U.S. military for domestic purposes, President Donald Trump has deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C, and announced plans to send them to Portland, Chicago, and other cities in response to protests over his immigration policies. Democratic-led states and cities have filed lawsuits to block […]
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Factbox-Legal battles mount over Trump’s National Guard deployments to U.S. cities
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(Reuters) -In a rare use of the U.S. military for domestic purposes, President Donald Trump has deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C, and announced plans to send them to Portland, Chicago, and other cities in response to protests over his immigration policies.
Democratic-led states and cities have filed lawsuits to block the deployments, and the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to ultimately decide whether Trump’s actions are lawful. Here is the status of those cases.
LOS ANGELES
Los Angeles was the first city where Trump deployed the National Guard, sending 4,000 Guard members and 700 Marines in June. About 100 California Guard troops remain in the city, and 200 remain federalized for possible deployment elsewhere.
A federal judge has twice ruled against Trump’s use of troops in Los Angeles, first ruling that there was no “rebellion” or other crisis that would authorize the president to send troops and later ruling that they engaged in law enforcement activities that are prohibited by a separate law, the Posse Comitatus Act.
A U.S. appeals court has paused both rulings and so far has backed Trump’s use of troops in and around Los Angeles.
WASHINGTON D.C.
Approximately 2,500 National Guard troops have been deployed to the nation’s capital. Trump has broad authority over law enforcement in Washington, D.C., which is not part of any state. But local officials argue the Guard is being used as a “federally run police force” without legal basis.
District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb, a Democrat, sued in September, citing the Home Rule Act of 1973, which he says gives the city’s mayor control over local policing. The Justice Department disputes that interpretation, saying the law does not limit the president’s authority over the federal district.
Trump has defended the deployment as necessary to curb lawlessness, though city police data showed crime was falling before troops were sent. A judge will hear arguments in the case on October 24.
CHICAGO
National Guard troops are not currently deployed in Illinois, although that could change at any moment. The Trump administration’s plan to deploy troops there has been on hold since October 9, when a judge in Chicago entered a temporary restraining order against the deployment after siding with the state, which sued to block it.
Trump said the troops are necessary to protect federal personnel and assets from what he has called violent protests. The judge said she found the government’s claims of violence less than credible, citing local law enforcement’s evaluation of the protests as small and largely peaceful.
The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to weigh in after a U.S. appeals court kept the temporary restraining order largely in place. It’s not clear when the Supreme Court may rule but it could happen at any time.
PORTLAND
National Guard troops are not currently deployed in Portland, but that could change as soon as Friday.
Trump ordered 200 troops to the city on September 27, but a federal judge blocked the move, saying his description of Portland as “war ravaged” was “simply untethered to the facts.” A U.S. appeals court later paused that decision.
But the appeals court’s ruling only addressed the judge’s initial order barring Trump from taking control of Oregon’s National Guard. The judge had issued a second order blocking deployment of troops from any state, after Trump attempted to circumvent her initial order by sending personnel from California and Texas.
The Trump administration has argued that the second order should also be rescinded, and the judge will consider that argument on Friday. Oregon has urged the court to keep the order in place, noting that both the state and a dissenting appeals court judge have asked for the appeals court to reconsider the decision with a broader panel of judges.
MEMPHIS
Trump has also directed the Tennessee National Guard to support law enforcement in Memphis, but the case is different because those troops remain under the control of the state’s Republican governor, Bill Lee.
State lawmakers and the mayor of Shelby County have sued Lee to block the National Guard deployment, saying that the use of National Guard troops for law enforcement violates the Tennessee constitution and state laws. A state judge has declined to block the troop deployment in the early days of the lawsuit, and has scheduled a November 3 hearing in the case.
(Reporting by Jan Wolfe in Washington, Dietrich Knauth in New York and Diana Novak Jones in Chicago, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and David Gregorio)