Unlawful, Unconstitutional, and Undemocratic: Attorney General Bonta Stands with D.C. Residents Who Want National Guard Troops Off Their Streets

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta yesterday joined a multistate amicus brief in support of D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s lawsuit challenging the federalization and deployment of National Guard troops to D.C. without the mayor’s consent. Last year, California successfully challenged the unlawful deployment of California National Guard troops to Los Angeles. Ultimately, there were multiple court orders in California, Oregon, and Illinois rejecting the President’s efforts to use the National Guard as a traveling national police force. However, thousands of National Guard troops remain deployed in D.C. In the brief, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition assert that the continued presence of National Guard troops in D.C. is unlawful, unconstitutional, and undemocratic. Domestic use of the military has long been recognized as antithetical to American values, and as California’s experience has shown, it is deeply damaging to state sovereignty, local economies, public safety, and troop morale.

“Last year, the Trump Administration sought to deploy National Guard troops as a paramilitary policing force in one community after another — beginning right here in California. We fought the President’s unlawful militarization of American streets, and we won,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Yet rather than taking the loss and throwing in the towel, President Trump continues to abuse his power to deploy troops on the streets of our nation’s capital. Let me be clear: we the people, as protected by the Constitution, will not bow down to President Trump’s tyranny. We urge the D.C. Circuit to affirm that the Trump Administration lacks authority to conduct this unjustified deployment of the National Guard to police our communities.”

The experience of California, as the first state to experience President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard without its Governor’s consent, serves as a warning of the harm caused by a continuous military presence in a state. For six months, federalized California National Guard troops were deployed in California’s communities. During this time, the troops’ presence stoked fear among Californians, causing people to stay home, fail to report to work, and avoid areas where the military was deployed. The use of federalized National Guard troops damaged trust between local law enforcement and the community, as troops were tasked with civilian law enforcement and widely present during immigration raids in the first few weeks of their deployment. Taxpayers were forced to foot the $111 million bill for the National Guard’s deployment in Los Angeles, while troops were taken away from essential state functions, such as fighting wildfires and engaging in fentanyl interdiction.

With California’s experience as a lesson, as well as the experiences of Oregon and Illinois, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that:

• Using the military for local law enforcement, as the President has done in D.C., upsets the careful balance between civilian and military authority set forth in the Constitution.
• The deployment of National Guard troops infringes on the police powers reserved to States and localities. The Constitution establishes a federal government of limited, enumerated powers — general police power is not among them. 
• National Guard troops are not prepared to engage in civilian law enforcement, lacking training in criminal procedure, civil rights, criminal investigation, and de-escalation. This introduces complications and dangers for both the public and the troops themselves. 
• States need the National Guard to be available for vital natural disasters and security functions.

Attorney General Bonta is committed to holding President Trump and his Administration accountable for overreaching their authority under the law and infringing on Californians’ constitutional rights in their efforts to transform America into a military state. In June, Attorney General Bonta, alongside Governor Gavin Newsom, filed a lawsuit challenging the President’s unlawful deployment of California National Guard troops, securing multiple court orders blocking their federalization and deployment to Los Angeles, their deployment to Portland, and finding violations of the Posse Comitatus Act. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in a related case, Illinois v. Trump, rejecting the Trump Administration’s nearly limitless conception of presidential authority to federalize the National Guard and the activities those troops can engage in, the Trump Administration officially withdrew the remaining troops in California and ended their deployment.

Attorney General Bonta has also supported Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield’s and D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s lawsuits challenging the Trump Administration’s unlawful deployment of National Guard troops to their cities.

In submitting the amicus brief, Attorney General Bonta joins the attorneys general of Maryland, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.