Trump's deployment of military against US cities

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    superchuck500

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    This needs a thread of its own - we've been talking about it on other threads but with new evidence of plans on deploy to Chicago in the coming weeks this is become more and more compelling. Trump deployed National Guard to LA under the guise of immigration enforcement where it was challenged in court and ultimately enjoined to a very limited status - but that took weeks to accomplish. Then he used special authorities relating to DC's unique legal status to mobilize National Guard to the nation's capital based on alleged out of control crime (DC's crime rates are high but certainly not the highest in the nation and have been trending down).

    There is now substantial smoke that Chicago is next - and it's no coincidence that these are blue cities (for example, Memphis, Cleveland, New Orleans, and Little Rock have higher rates of violent crime than DC and Chicago). And while the LA deployment was somewhat limited compared to DC's, it is true that DC's status gives Trump quite a bit of freedom to operate . . . but Chicago will be another matter, and both local and state political leadership will be vocal and aggressive.

    It's not supposed to be easy for a president to deploy US military troops (including national guard) for operations in the homeland without a clear emergency. In cases of insurrection or substantial unrest that could be brewing into insurrection , the president can invoke the Insurrection Act to quell unrest - but that's a very specific scenario and doesn't include domestic law enforcement. In fact, there is specific federal law (the Posse Comitatus Act) that prohibits the use of federal armed forces (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines) for domestic law enforcement purposes unless authorized by Congress or the Constitution. In the LA trial over whether the deployment violated the PC Act, Trump's DOJ argued that they were not engaging in domestic law enforcement but where only supporting the federal ICE mission and protecting federal property (there were some protests around federal property). In DC however, they are clearly engaging in domestic law enforcement and the plans for Chicago seem much more like DC than LA.

    The National Guard, however, has it's own set of authorities that allow for either state deployment (under state leadership and ordered by a governor) or full federalization under the president for certain missions, not domestic law enforcement. Or there's a hybrid of the two under 32 USC 502(f) called "Title 32 status" that gives SecDef authority to deploy out of state guard to a state, but again this question of what their mission is remains central.

    A good read on all of this from 2020 when Trump deployed troops against the George Floyd protests in DC: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-w...power-call-out-national-guard-not-blank-check


    Just last year (2024), Kristi Noem was outspoken against suggestions that Biden could federalize the National Guard in Texas.

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said he’s dropping — for now — his push to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, a move that comes after legal roadblocks hung up the effort.

    Trump said in a social media post Wednesday that he’s removing the Guard troops for now. “We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again - Only a question of time!” he wrote.

    Troops had already left Los Angeles after the president deployed them earlier this year as part of a broader crackdown on crime and immigration. They had been sent to Chicago and Portland but were never on the streets as legal challenges played out.

    Trump’s push to deploy the troops in Democrat-led cities has been met with legal challenges at nearly every turn.

    The Supreme Court in December refused to allow the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area as part of its crackdown on immigration. The order was not a final ruling but was a significant and rare setback by the high court for the president’s efforts…….

     
    He knows he’s going to lose.
    No he actually doesn’t. He has been rewarded with victories by this Supreme Court many, many times.

    We already know he will get 3 votes, because 3 of them already endorsed it now.

    I would hope he would lose, but going by the past year he probably has expectations of success.
     
    No he actually doesn’t. He has been rewarded with victories by this Supreme Court many, many times.

    We already know he will get 3 votes, because 3 of them already endorsed it now.

    I would hope he would lose, but going by the past year he probably has expectations of success.
    Yeah he does

    “We conclude that the term “regular forces” in §12406(3)
    likely refers to the regular forces of the United States mili-
    tary. This interpretation means that to call the Guard into
    active federal service under §12406(3), the President must
    be “unable” with the regular military “to execute the laws of
    the United States.” Because the statute requires an assess-
    ment of the military’s ability to execute the laws, it likely
    applies only where the military could legally execute the
    laws. Such circumstances are exceptional: Under the Posse
    Comitatus Act, the military is prohibited from “execut[ing]
    the laws” “except in cases and under circumstances ex-
    pressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress.”
    18 U. S. C. §1385. So before the President can federalize
    the Guard under §12406(3), he likely must have statutory
    or constitutional authority to execute the laws with the reg-
    ular military and must be “unable” with those forces to per-
    form that function.
    At this preliminary stage, the Government has failed to
    identify a source of authority that would allow the military
    to execute the laws in Illinois. The President has not in-
    voked a statute that provides an exception to the Posse
    Comitatus Act. “

     

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