{"id":80801,"date":"2025-10-07T15:21:58","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T15:21:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2025\/10\/07\/trumps-national-guard-use-sets-up-legal-clash-testing-executive-power\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T17:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T17:11:14","slug":"trumps-national-guard-use-sets-up-legal-clash-testing-executive-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2025\/10\/07\/trumps-national-guard-use-sets-up-legal-clash-testing-executive-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s National Guard use sets up legal clash testing executive power"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s latest bid to deploy the military on U.S. soil over local opposition is triggering a new conflict with blue state governors that is playing out in the courts as Trump envisages a country where armed soldiers patrol U.S. streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has already pushed traditional boundaries by using the National Guard domestically, envisioning a muscular role for the U.S. military in targeting illegal immigration and crime in American cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His attempt to deploy California National Guard members to Oregon and Texas Guardsmen to Illinois<\/a> is a sprawling use of presidential power. Next steps in lawsuits filed by Democrat-led states will likely address significant questions of constitutional law, federalism and the separation of powers \u2014 setting up a potential collision between the courts and Trump\u2019s aggressive use of the National Guard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a gathering of military brass last week, Trump called for using U.S. cities as a training ground for troops<\/a> and warned of an \u201cinvasion from within.\u201d To his critics, however, Trump\u2019s use of the National Guard amounts to a frightening use of force against Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat will happen when the president loses in court?\u201d said Alex Reinert, a constitutional law expert at the Cardozo School of Law in New York City. \u201cWill he use it as an excuse to act in an even more authoritarian way?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An expanding role for the National Guard not seen before<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Rifle-wielding troops on American streets are one of the starkest manifestations of Trump\u2019s attempt to expand presidential power, with troops already deployed to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Control over a state\u2019s National Guard typically falls to the governor unless units are federalized \u2014 as they were in California over the governor\u2019s objections. Otherwise, it\u2019s up to the governor to decide to deploy Guard members or send them to other states to assist with natural disasters. In D.C., Trump commands the Guard himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local authorities, Trump says, have failed to safeguard communities, giving several Democrat-led cities as examples. He\u2019s called Portland \u201cwar ravaged\u201d and a \u201cwar zone\u201d that is \u201cburning down\u201d and like \u201cliving in hell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the military\u2019s role in enforcing domestic laws, reflecting America\u2019s long-standing belief that law enforcement should remain in civilian hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump was asked Monday about another law, the Insurrection Act, and said he would be willing to invoke it if necessary<\/a>. It allows the president to dispatch active duty military in states that are unable to put down an insurrection or are defying federal law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I had to enact it \u2014 I\u2019d do that,\u201d Trump said. \u201cIf people were being killed, and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up.\u201d He added: \u201cWe have to make sure our cities are safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier that Trump wants to make America\u2019s cities safer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou guys are framing this like, \u2018The president wants to take over the American cities with the military,\u2019\u201d Leavitt told reporters Monday. \u201cThe president wants to help these local leaders who have been completely ineffective in securing their own cities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. officials say the decisions to send federalized troops from Texas and California to other states are being made at the highest levels of the Trump administration, bypassing formal Pentagon policy processes that would normally be part of troop deployments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this dynamic is not unheard of, one official said, it\u2019s typically used in situations like natural disasters where troops need to move out quickly before formal orders and authorizations. The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A protester, draped in an altered American flag, watches as law enforcement officers try to disperse protesters near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Oregon, on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. (Ethan Swope\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One result is that governors like California\u2019s Gavin Newsom and Illinois\u2019 JB Pritzker, both Democrats, have become the first to announce troop deployments. Pentagon public affairs officials have struggled to confirm or deny the actions and troop numbers, facing pressure to avoid giving even basic details of military operations and to defer questions to the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The situation is far different from President John F. Kennedy\u2019s move to federalize the Alabama National Guard in 1963 to integrate the University of Alabama in a standoff with Gov. George Wallace. That is because Trump is ostensibly seeking to use troops to protect federal property and personnel, not to enforce federal civil rights laws passed by Congress, according to William Banks, a Syracuse University law professor and an expert in constitutional law and national security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Guard members cannot enforce local laws, block traffic or do \u201cany of the things that police do,\u201d Banks said. \u201cSo it\u2019s more symbolic than helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legal challenges set up a clash over Trump\u2019s deployments<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Leaders in Illinois, Oregon and California have sued, while top White House figures blasted a Trump-appointed judge\u2019s decision to block the deployment in Portland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Miller, a top Trump adviser, suggested it\u2019s the courts that have ignored constitutional limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA district court judge has no conceivable authority, whatsoever, to restrict the President and Commander-in-Chief from dispatching members of the US military to defend federal lives and property,\u201d Miller posted on X, likening the protests over Trump\u2019s immigration policy to \u201cdomestic terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judges are not likely to be swayed by the bluster, legal experts say. Instead, they will look at whether Trump\u2019s orders violate the Constitution and the federal laws governing how the Guard is used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s opponents have relied on the court system to slow down his agenda, with the Republican-controlled Congress largely not checking his expansion of power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With litigation piling up, Trump officials have shown disdain for judges and decisions they oppose but so far have avoided the direct kind of confrontation that legal experts say could do real harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\t