Amicus Briefs Published December 1, 2025

District of Columbia v. Trump — Federalization of the National Guard (DC)

United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit

Issue Areas
  • Rule of Law
In This Resource
Summary

On Aug. 11, 2025, President Trump issued a memorandum directing Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to deploy the D.C. National Guard in the nation’s capital, ostensibly to reduce an “epidemic of crime.”

The president followed up on Aug. 25 by signing an executive order that required Hegseth to form a “specialized unit” within the D.C. Guard for “rapid mobilization.” The Aug. 25 order invoked a federal law known as Title 32 that puts National Guard troops under the control of their home state’s governor, but funded by the federal government. But the president is the commander-in-chief of the D.C. Guard; D.C. doesn’t have a governor.

Between Aug. 16 and Aug. 31, the governors of multiple states sent more than 1,300 additional National Guard troops to D.C. under Title 32.

On Sept. 4, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued the Trump administration, seeking to block it from deploying troops on the streets of Washington. Schwalb’s lawsuit argues that the administration’s invocation of Title 32 to activate the D.C. Guard is unconstitutional. Schwalb also argues, among other things, that despite the out-of-state troops being in Title 32 status—under the control of their governor—the administration is controlling them in violation of federal law and the Constitution.

On Oct. 31, the Trump administration informed the district court that the Department of Defense directed the D.C. National Guard to remain deployed through February 2026.

Latest update

On Nov. 20, the federal district judge ruled in favor of D.C. and blocked the deployment of troops in D.C. However, the court stayed the implementation of its order until December 11 to allow the administration to appeal. The Trump administration appealed to the D.C. Circuit, asking it to pause the district court’s ruling.

On Dec. 1, more than 30 former military leaders including former branch secretaries, retired officers, and Vet Voice Foundation, represented by the States United Democracy Center and Protect Democracy Project, filed an amicus brief in the appeal.

On Dec. 1, the States United Democracy Center and Protect Democracy Project, on behalf of a group of former branch secretaries of the U.S. military, retired senior military officers, and Vet Voice Foundation, filed an amicus brief in the appeal. The former military leaders urged the court to deny the Trump administration’s request to stay the district court’s ruling while the appeal proceeds.

The group argues in their brief that the politicized nature of the D.C. deployment poses an enormous risk to the nonpartisan reputation of the military, and that politicized deployments harm the morale of troops. They also point out that National Guard troops are being diverted from preparing for missions in their home states, and that they simply aren’t trained for domestic law enforcement missions.

“Throughout our nation’s history, domestic deployment of the military has been a last resort,” the group writes. “The strict limitations on the use of troops on U.S. soil remain as important today as when they were enacted into law.”

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