A Domestic Deployment

This Week in Democracy

• President Trump federalized members of the National Guard, as he sought to quell demonstrations against his immigration policies and set the stage for potentially more troop deployments within the United States. After National Guard units took to the streets of Los Angeles, California quickly sued the Trump administration over the domestic deployment, arguing the president used dubious legal justification to go around the governor’s command of his state’s units.

  District Court Judge Charles Breyer issued a temporary restraining order, requiring the president to return control of the National Guard to the California governor, saying Trump’s “actions were illegal—both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.” The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the ruling while it reviews the case; a hearing is set for Tuesday.

  ➡️ READ: Sharing the Facts About Domestic Military Deployment and State Authority

• As the president sent the National Guard into LA and mobilized active-duty Marines to soon join, California Gov. Gavin Newsom warned Americans in a speech that Trump’s “authoritarian” ambitions have led the country into a “perilous moment.” He added, “Democracy is under assault right before our eyes—the moment we’ve feared has arrived.”

  Governors in 22 other states expressed outrage at the president’s actions this week, warning of further domestic deployment of armed forces. Federal officials said they want to continue to use the National Guard to enforce the Trump administration’s immigration policies and tamp down protests.

  ➡️ READ: Americans Oppose National Guard Deployment Without Governors’ Consent

• The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled the White House can restrict Associated Press journalists’ access from covering the president at daily events, saying that access was not covered by the First Amendment. Judge Neomi Rao wrote that the White House “retains discretion to determine, including on the basis of viewpoint, which journalists will be admitted.”

  The ruling reverses a lower court’s decision, which the White House had ignored.

• A federal judge blocked portions of Trump’s executive order overhauling U.S. elections, siding with a group of 19 attorneys general who sued the administration. Trump sought to force states to require proof of citizenship to register to vote, along with other measures. District Judge Denise Casper wrote that the order “could create chaos and confusion that could result in voters losing trust in the election process.”

  This is the latest court ruling knocking down some provisions in the executive order.

• A House subcommittee approved a funding bill that will cut the budget of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) by $135 million. While that is lower than the $495 million that the Trump administration proposed, critics said it will harm crucial cyber- and election security protections.

  ➡️ READ: Sharing the Facts About CISA

State of the States

In California, Trump signed a congressional resolution that stripped the state of its electric vehicle mandate, which would have phased out new gas-powered car sales by 2035. While Trump said he was “saving California,” the state responded with a lawsuit, arguing the president violated constitutional principles of federalism and separation of powers.

“California will not back down,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta, announcing the lawsuit. “We will continue to fiercely defend ourselves from this lawless federal overreach.”Ten other state attorneys general joined the complaint.

In Georgia, the state Supreme Court blocked four rules that the State Election Board (SEB) approved last year, finding the board exceeded its authority and went beyond state law. The rules would have mandated that poll workers hand count ballots on Election Day and cleared the path for local election officials to refuse to certify election results, among other things.

“SEB can pass rules to implement and enforce the Election Code, but it cannot go beyond, change, or contradict the statutory scheme,” Chief Justice Nels Peterson wrote in his opinion.

In Nevada, Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed bipartisan legislation that would have required voters to present a photo ID before casting a ballot, while also adding more ballot drop boxes throughout the state. While the governor said the bill did not do enough to “sufficiently guarantee ballot security,” legislative leaders called the veto a “breach of trust.”

In Wisconsin, a campaign finance watchdog group sued billionaire Elon Musk and his super PAC for supposedly breaking state laws when he gave voters $1 million in his effort to get his preferred state Supreme Court candidate elected in April. By offering large sums of money to sign a petition against “activist judges,” Musk was leading “a brazen scheme to bribe Wisconsin citizens to vote,” the complaint alleges.

Recommended Reading

States United CEO Joanna Lydgate penned an op-ed for Teen Vogue this week, unpacking the national conversation over whether the U.S. is in a constitutional crisis.

“As the leader of an organization that works to protect our democracy, and as a lawyer who served at the highest levels of state government, it’s hard to disagree with the majority of my fellow Americans as I look at what’s happening in our country right now—it feels like we are in a constitutional crisis,” she wrote.