U.S. Court Temporarily Halts Trump’s National Guard Deployment in Washington, D.C.

A U.S. federal judge has temporarily suspended the Trump administration’s decision to deploy National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. The order came in response to a lawsuit accusing the administration of unlawfully intervening in the city’s law-and-order affairs.

According to an Al Jazeera report published Friday (21 November), U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb ruled on Thursday that the President cannot deploy troops “for just any reason.” She granted the Trump administration 21 days to appeal the decision if they choose to do so.

Although the federal government has special authority over Washington, D.C., the Trump administration has long faced criticism for sending National Guard members and federal agents to Democrat-controlled cities without declaring an emergency situation. Deployments in cities such as Los Angeles, Portland, and Chicago have been condemned by local authorities and rights groups as discriminatory, aggressive, and violations of civil rights.

The U.S. Department of Justice, however, dismissed the lawsuit as a “baseless effort,” insisting that there is no reasonable justification for halting the deployment and claiming the D.C. government’s accusations lack merit.

The lawsuit was filed in September by D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, who argued that such “unlawful occupation” threatens the integrity of American democracy.

Trump first ordered the troop deployment in August, sending around 2,300 National Guard members and over a hundred federal agents from various states to Washington, D.C.