WA A.G. Brown Signs Onto Brief Urging 9th Circuit Court To Overturn Ruling On Trump’s Nat’l Guard Deployments

Washington State Attorney General, Nick Brown, is urging the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to block what he is calling "federal overreach" in the case against President Donald Trump's recent deployments of the National Guard.

Brown has joined a supplemental amicus brief to persuade the Ninth Circuit to re-hear arguments against Trump's use of his federal authority to activate National Guard troops in several states, including neighboring Oregon, despite the objection of those state's governors.

“We know this is wrong," says Brown. "We know this is un-American. And we will continue to raise the alarm about the president’s unconstitutional vision for using the military against civilians."

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According to a statement from the AG's office on Thursday, the amicus brief argues that a previous order by the Ninth Circuit dramatically expands presidential powers in a way as to violate the constitutional limits related to domestic military deployment which now threatens the sovereignty of every state.

The filing contends that federal laws only allow for the deployment of the National Guard under extraordinary circumstances - such as rebellion or foreign incursion - and cannot be applied for the purposes of routine police work or staffing issues related to the departments that mange such activities.

The brief goes on to caution the panel by stating that, if their previous ruling is allowed to stand, then the president will have the standing authority to deploy the National Guard in any state at any time for any reason, even when and where there are no emergent circumstances which would traditionally warrant their presence and/or against the wishes of the democratically-elected governors of those states.

Also underscored in the filing is that the panel's decision is in opposition to other recent findings by the Ninth Circuit, and is detrimental to longstanding safeguards which have traditionally offered protection to civilian authorities over the military and the rights of every state to have control over its respective National Guard units.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes initiated the brief, which is also backed by the attorneys general of both Hawai'i and Nevada.