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BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today co-led a coalition of 24 attorneys general and governors in an amicus brief supporting Oregon’s court challenge to the Trump administration’s latest attempts to unlawfully use the military for civil law enforcement.
Similar to previous unlawful deployments of the National Guard, the president has relied on bombastic rhetoric and lies as pretext for taking military servicemembers from their homes to patrol cities that are not experiencing crises but that are located in states that voted against the president.
On Saturday, a federal judge issued a restraining order temporarily preventing the administration from deploying the Guard in Portland, Oregon. U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, said the President’s decision to activate the Guard was “simply untethered to the facts” and his arguments “risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power – to the detriment of this nation.”
“President Trump has now deployed the National Guard four times in four months to cities where local police are fully capable of maintaining law and order,” said Attorney General Brown. “These deployments are about politics, not public safety. Maryland stands with Oregon because the Trump administration’s repeated abuse of power threatens every state’s ability to govern itself and protect its residents. We cannot allow these deployments to become the new normal.”
The brief supports Oregon’s argument that central to the rule of law is that the military is subordinate to civilian authority. The states explain that the president’s unlawful and unconstitutional use of the military has exacerbated, rather than calmed, tensions in our communities, while threatening activity protected by the First Amendment. Moreover, the President’s actions undermine the role of local law enforcement and violate state sovereignty by sending federalized troops into our communities against the will of state leaders.
The states also make clear their interest in ensuring that their National Guards are available to perform the essential services they provide the states on an ongoing basis. They provide critical services such as responding to natural disasters and providing cybersecurity support, among other daily contributions. This unlawful federalization pulls volunteer service members away from performing vital services, and states are not in a position to replace them.
The amicus brief is co-led by the attorneys general of Maryland and Washington. Others joining include the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin. The governors of Kansas, Kentucky and Pennsylvania also joined the filing.
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