The Legal Defense Fund (LDF) filed an amicus brief in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in District of Columbia v. Trump, urging the court to deny the Trump administration’s request to stay the District Court’s preliminary injunction, which had ordered a temporary end to the National Guard deployment in Washington D.C. pending resolution of the case. A stay would allow the deployment to continue.
The District Court granted the preliminary injunction earlier this month, ruling that there is a substantial likelihood that the deployment is illegal, that D.C. is irreparably harmed by the deployment, and that the balance of equities and public interest weighed in favor of issuing the preliminary injunction.
The District Court’s decision followed a pattern of court decisions issuing injunctions to stop National Guard deployments across the country because of the substantial likelihood they are illegal or unconstitutional.
“In an abuse of federal power, the National Guard was deployed to D.C. under a manufactured crime emergency to justify increased policing and surveillance of Black communities. The National Guard presence in D.C. continues to cause irreparable harm to city residents, especially the Black residents who were already suffering from discriminatory police practices prior to the deployment,” said Alyssa Gordon, Justice in Public Safety Project Fellow at LDF. “We are hopeful that the Court will protect D.C. residents and deny the administration’s request to stay the lower court’s order, which temporarily halts the National Guard deployment. There is simply no justification for a military presence in our Nation’s capital—public safety is achieved by investing in communities, not treating them like combatants.”
In September, LDF filed an amicus brief urging the District Court to grant the preliminary injunction and prevent further harm to Black communities arising out of a military presence in the District.
###
Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation’s first civil rights law organization. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Please note that LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights.
