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BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown led a coalition of 24 attorneys general and governors in filing an amicus brief in the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in support of Illinois and the City of Chicago against President Trump’s unlawful, unconstitutional, and undemocratic deployment of the National Guard. The brief urges the Court to deny the President’s request for a stay of a lower court order that blocked the deployment.
Attorney General Brown and the coalition argue that the President’s actions break the law and threaten one of America’s most important principles – that the military must remain under civilian control – while also threatening state sovereignty and core constitutional principles of federalism. Attorney General Brown and the coalition’s brief makes clear that this violates the Constitution and federal law.
“Earlier this month, a federal court blocked President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Illinois because it is an unlawful and dangerous threat to our democracy,” said Attorney General Brown. “Now, we're asking the Supreme Court to respect that decision and stop the President from turning our military into a political weapon he can deploy whenever he disagrees with state and local leaders.”
Earlier this month, Attorney General Brown led a coalition of 24 attorneys general and governors in filing a similar amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in support of Illinois against President Trump’s unlawful deployment of the National Guard without approval from the state’s governor. The court allowed the President to proceed with placing National Guard troops under federal control but refused to let him proceed with deploying those troops.
Joining Attorney General Brown in today’s filing are the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai‘i, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. The governors of Kansas, Kentucky and Pennsylvania also joined the filing.
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