Lawsuit filed in D.C. contests Trump's National Guard deployment, claiming it as a compulsory 'military occupation'

In a recent development, the District of Columbia has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, marking the second such legal action since President Trump asserted control over the city's police department and deployed the National Guard.

The White House asserts that deploying the Guard to protect federal assets and assist law enforcement is within Trump's authority as president. However, Brian Schwalb, the district's attorney general, claims the deployment is an illegal use of the military for domestic law enforcement.

Schwalb's filing contends that the deployment also violates Washington's Home Rule Act, signed by President Richard Nixon in 1973, and wrongly asserts federal control over units from other states.

The lawsuit comes after a federal judge in California ruled that Trump's deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles was illegal. The city currently hosting the court handling the dispute over President Donald Trump's use of the National Guard is Los Angeles, where a court ruled the deployment illegal and prohibited Trump from using the National Guard there in the future.

The deployment now involves over 1,000 troops, and members of the D.C. National Guard have had their orders extended through December.

Violent crime had been an issue in the capital for years, but was on a decline when Trump intervened with an executive order on Aug. 11. Mayor Muriel Bowser, the Democrat mayor of Washington, has backed up some of Trump's claims that crime is down during the takeover, but data shows and critics argue that crime was already falling before the surge.

Bowser has pointed to a steep drop in offences such as carjackings since the deployment began. However, Council member Robert White, speaking at a "Federal Forces Out Now" news conference, expressed concern that his young daughters do not see military personnel and officers as protectors but as those who are there to catch, condemn, and take away rights.

There are clear divides between some D.C. Council members and Bowser, with critics accusing her of acquiescing to the administration. White stated that when history is written about this moment, they will have to justify what they did and did not do, and he is not prepared to say that he capitulated.

Several GOP-led states have added National Guard troops to the ranks of those patrolling in the nation's capital. The challenge was made in a federal court, asking for intervention as Trump plans to send troops to other cities.

White encouraged the D.C. Council, Congress, the mayor, and the district's attorney general to "stand together not in fear, not in compliance, but against an authoritarian takeover of the city." As the legal battle unfolds, the future of the National Guard's presence in Washington remains uncertain.