By Jan Wolfe
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Washington, D.C., sued U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday over his deployment of National Guard troops in the capital city, a move likely to heighten tensions between the Republican president and the city’s Democratic leaders.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court by D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, seeks a court order blocking the deployment of troops on the grounds it is unconstitutional and violates multiple federal laws.
The litigation could also lead to another judicial rebuke of Trump’s attempt to broaden the role of the military on U.S. soil, following a ruling this week that his use of troops to fight crime in California was unlawful.
“Armed soldiers should not be policing American citizens on American soil,” Schwalb said in an X post.
“The forced military occupation of the District of Columbia violates our local autonomy and basic freedoms. It must end.”
Trump last month deployed National Guard troops to Washington, saying they would “re-establish law, order, and public safety.” Trump also placed the capital district’s Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the president was within his lawful authority to deploy troops to protect federal assets and assist law enforcement.
“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.,” Jackson said in a statement.
In June, Trump put California’s National Guard under federal control and deployed them to Los Angeles over the objections of the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom.
A California federal judge ruled on September 2 that using troops to protect federal agents on immigration and drug operations was illegal.
Trump has been threatening to expand his federal crackdown on Democratic-led cities to Chicago, casting the use of presidential power as an urgent effort to tackle crime even as city officials cite declines in homicides, gun violence and burglaries.
The president’s critics say his actions are a dangerous expansion of executive authority that could spark tensions between the military and ordinary citizens.
Thursday’s lawsuit alleged that deployment of National Guard units to police Washington’s streets without Mayor Muriel Bowser’s consent violates the Home Rule Act, a federal law that established local self-governance for the capital district.
The lawsuit also alleged that National Guard troops deployed to Washington are subject to the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law that sharply limits the use of the military for domestic enforcement.
(Reporting by Jan Wolfe, Tom Hals, Katharine Jackson, Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nia Williams)
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