By: Atharava Pandey

Sports Editor

On Nov. 30, US District Judge Jia Cobb ordered the Trump administration to end its deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. She concluded that President Donald Trump’s use of national troops was illegally intruding on the authority of the local officials already present. According to Cobb, while the president maintains the right to protect federal property, he does not have the right to deploy the D.C. National Guard or call in troops from other states. She has put her decision on hold for 21 days to allow for any response from the administration. There were many different reactions to this decision. 

After Cobb’s ruling, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb stated, “Normalizing the use of military troops for domestic law enforcement sets a dangerous precedent, where the President can disregard states’ independence and deploy troops wherever and whenever he wants—with no check on his military power.” The White House, however, stood its ground. According to spokeswoman Abigail Jackson, “President Trump is well within his lawful authority to deploy the National Guard in Washington, D.C… This lawsuit is nothing more than another attempt to undermine the President’s highly successful operations to stop violent crime in DC.”

Just one week later, on Thanksgiving, tragedy struck as two National Guard members were shot in D.C. near the White House. It is suspected that somebody who entered the country in late 2021 carried out the shooting. Reacting to the crime, President Trump said, “I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully [recover] and terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions.”

As it occurred during Judge Cobb’s ordered 21-day stay, in which she gave the Trump Administration three weeks to appeal her decision, the shooting has now further intensified debate over the constitutionality of the National Guard deployment. Some people have argued that this shooting shows the dangers in D.C. and the need for guards to protect the public. Others have argued that this attack shows that troops should not be used for routine patrolling, as it puts them in the line of danger and blurs the line between military and civilian. 

The issue began in August, when Trump signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency in Washington, D.C. As a result, more than 2,300 troops from eight different states were sent to D.C. This was not the only city where national troops were stationed, however; the administration also sent troops to Los Angeles and attempted to do the same in Chicago and Portland. It is unclear how long these deployments will last in Washington, but according to Schwalb’s office, they are likely to stay until next summer.

(Source: AP, Daily Caller, PBS)