A federal judge sided Thursday with the attorney general in Washington, D.C., who sued against the National Guard deployment ordered by President Donald Trump.
The president ordered a deployment of troops into D.C. to quell the violent crime rampant in the area, but many on the left have accused him of militarizing the streets in order to intimidate his political opponents.
‘This unprecedented federal overreach is not normal, or legal. It is long past time to let the National Guard go home — to their everyday lives, their regular jobs, their families, and their children.’
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb ruled that the president had exceeded his presidential authority but gave the administration 21 days to appeal the ruling.
Cobb said that Trump could not deploy troops for “non-military, crime-deterrence missions in the absence of a request from the city’s civil authorities.”
“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,” D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said after the ruling.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller excoriated the ruling.
“Judicial despotism is one of the gravest hazards we face to the functioning and endurance of our Republic,” he wrote on social media. “No district judge can steal for himself the powers of the Commander-in-Chief.”
The president has sent National Guard members to other cities to combat crime and faced other challenges in court from his opponents and local government officials.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Schwalb’s lawsuit was “nothing more than another attempt — at the detriment of D.C. residents — to undermine the president’s highly successful operations to stop violent crime in D.C.”
RELATED: DC Dems are furious at Mayor Bowser for admitting Trump’s troops are lowering crime
“This unprecedented federal overreach is not normal, or legal. It is long past time to let the National Guard go home — to their everyday lives, their regular jobs, their families, and their children,” Schwalb added.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser admitted that the surge had helped decrease violent crime in the district, but she was widely criticized by other Democrats for saying it publicly.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Read the full article here
