The Posse Comitatus Act looms over President Trump’s choice to take over the Washington, D.C. police, his earlier choice to imagine management of the California Nationwide Guard, and the redistricting battle in Texas.
On August 11, The White Home issued a presidential memoranda titled “Restoring Regulation and Order within the District of Columbia” which included these key passages:
The native authorities of the District of Columbia has misplaced management of public order and security within the metropolis, as evidenced by the 2 embassy staffers who had been murdered in Might, the Congressional intern who was fatally shot a brief distance from the White Home in June, and the Administration staffer who was mercilessly overwhelmed by a violent mob days in the past. Residents, vacationers, and workers alike are unable to reside peacefully within the Nation’s capital, which is beneath siege from violent crime. It’s a level of nationwide shame that Washington, D.C., has a violent crime charge that’s greater than a few of the most harmful locations on this planet. It’s my obligation to our residents and Federal staff to safe the protection and the peaceable functioning of our Nation, the Federal Authorities, and our metropolis.
Mobilizing the District of Columbia Nationwide Guard. Pursuant to my authority beneath the Structure and legal guidelines of the US and the District of Columbia, I direct the Secretary of Protection to mobilize the District of Columbia Nationwide Guard and order members to lively service, in such numbers as he deems crucial, to handle the epidemic of crime in our Nation’s capital. The mobilization and period of obligation shall stay in impact till I decide that circumstances of legislation and order have been restored within the District of Columbia. Additional, I direct the Secretary of Protection to coordinate with State Governors and authorize the orders of any further members of the Nationwide Guard to lively service, as he deems crucial and applicable, to reinforce this mission.
Aficionados of incipient fascism is likely to be a bit dissatisfied within the rhetoric in comparison with this banger from April:
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) August 13, 2025
Possibly the extra restrained tone is a perform of classes discovered within the California deployment which is now the topic of litigation based mostly on the Reconstruction Period Posse Comatitus Act.
Or perhaps it’s boiler plate based mostly on Trump’s said plans to make use of the Nationwide Guard to “take again” different cities akin to Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Baltimore and Oakland.
Critics had been fast to note that every metropolis named Trump has a Black mayor.
Trump has additionally tasked the Pentagon with making a “navy ‘response pressure’ for civil unrest.” The Washington Publish has particulars:
The Trump administration is evaluating plans that will set up a “Home Civil Disturbance Fast Response Pressure” composed of a whole lot of Nationwide Guard troops tasked with quickly deploying into American cities dealing with protests or different unrest, in line with inside Pentagon paperwork reviewed by The Washington Publish.
The plan requires 600 troops to be on standby always to allow them to deploy in as little as one hour, the paperwork say. They’d be cut up into two teams of 300 and stationed at navy bases in Alabama and Arizona, with purview of areas east and west of the Mississippi River, respectively.
Value projections outlined within the paperwork point out that such a mission, if the proposal is adopted, may stretch into the a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} ought to navy plane and aircrews even be required to be prepared around-the-clock.
In the meantime in Texas, Trump’s acolytes try to criminalize Democratic opposition to the unprecedented mid-decade redistricting plan.
I’ll have extra on that additional down, however let’s have a look at the large image first.
Steven D. Schwinn of the John Marshall Regulation College lays out the constitutional implications of Trump’s phrases and actions:
These assaults comply with a standard plan of action. First, President Trump lodges an aggressive and even outlandish constitutional declare in assist of a brand new controversial coverage. Typically, his declare, if in the end accepted, would dangerously aggrandize the facility of the presidency on the expense of the coordinate branches and the states in violation of the separation of powers and federalism. Subsequent, he adjusts his declare, and his coverage, in response to push-back from Congress, the courts, or the states. However he does so solely begrudgingly, usually leaving a path of injury to our structural Structure in his wake. Lastly, he however achieves his authentic coverage aim, or a lot of it, by additional abusing the coordinate branches and the states.
Along with following a standard plan of action, President Trump’s assaults even have a standard characteristic: They exploit the comparative institutional strengths of the presidency and the comparative institutional weaknesses of the coordinate branches and the states. President Trump is all too conscious that the fashionable president wields huge energy. On the identical time, he realizes that Congress, the courts, and the states usually lack efficient institutional powers or cooperative potential to rein him in. (And even when efficient institutional powers might exist, they are often annoyed or undermined when the coordinate branches or the states share President Trump’s political aims.) By exploiting the institutional strengths of the presidency and the institutional weaknesses of the coordinate branches and the states, President Trump can but additional aggrandize his personal energy on the expense of Congress, the courts, and the states.
Re: Trump’s “D.C. takeover,” His rhetoric at his information convention was racially charged and alarming:
“It’s changing into a state of affairs of full and whole lawlessness. We’ll eliminate the slums, too. Now we have slums right here. We’ll eliminate them. I do know it’s not politically right. You’ll say, ‘Oh, so horrible.’ No, we’re eliminating the slums the place they reside.”
No matter is driving Trump’s actions, it’s not crime knowledge.
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) August 13, 2025
It must also be famous that Joe Biden campaigned on a promise to grant D.C. statehood or at the very least expanded dwelling rule however did the other in workplace.
Trump supporters like podcaster Benny Johnson amplified and expanded on Trump’s rhetoric, telling his 5.5 miillion YouTube subscribers it’s time for ethnic cleaning within the nation’s capitol:
I imagine total neighborhoods, most likely, have to be emptied, have to be bulldozed. I imagine that there are locations which might be so crime-ridden and so infested that you just simply have to — such as you’re simply gonna must crack down. You’re going to must do the job, and also you’re going to must get the crime out of Washington. That’s my private expertise.
To this point, the truth isn’t fairly that dramatic. From The New York Instances:
A few dozen members of the Nationwide Guard appeared in 5 navy autos close to the Washington Monument because the solar set, a stark juxtaposition to a peaceable night scene of individuals jogging by with headphones and strolling their canine. An Military official mentioned troops had been persevering with to assemble on the D.C. Armory and had been anticipated to deploy round nationwide monuments, and close to a U.S. Park Police facility within the Anacostia neighborhood of southeast Washington.
Mr. Trump on Monday described the nation’s capital in apocalyptic phrases as a crime-infested wasteland — an outline that ignores the extent to which crime has been falling within the metropolis during the last two years. However it stays unclear whether or not the eventual present of pressure will match the president’s rhetoric.
The preliminary deployment close to the Washington Monument, at the very least, usually resembled one thing much less fearsome, with troops snapping photographs of themselves with guests. They left roughly two hours after they arrived.
“We simply did a presence patrol to be amongst the folks, to be seen,” Grasp Sgt. Cory Boroff mentioned as he stood close to a Humvee. “Of the folks, for the folks in D.C.,” he added. He mentioned he didn’t know the place they might be headed subsequent.
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Ms. Leavitt boasted {that a} federal process pressure, which incorporates some native officers, made 23 arrests on Monday night in reference to a variety of crimes. In Washington, a metropolis of roughly 700,000 folks, the Metropolitan Police Division makes a median of 68 arrests a day, officers mentioned. Metropolis officers mentioned the Nationwide Guard troops wouldn’t have the authority to make arrests.
In the meantime the results of Trump’s April California caper proceed to mount.
Beginning with the California legislation swimsuit:
California Lawyer Basic Rob Bonta right now issued a press release forward of trial starting tomorrow at 10:00 AM PT within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Northern District of California in California’s lawsuit difficult the illegal use of federalized California Nationwide Guard troops for civilian legislation enforcement in Los Angeles in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. Lawyer Basic Bonta and California Governor Gavin Newsom sued the Trump Administration in June after President Trump despatched federalized California Nationwide Guard members and Marines into Los Angeles communities to patrol and interact in different legislation enforcement exercise prohibited by the Posse Comitatus Act. He did so over the objections of the Governor, in opposition to the desires of native legislation enforcement, and for causes unsupported by circumstances on the bottom.
“Two months in the past, the federal authorities deployed navy troops to the streets of Los Angeles for the needs of political theater and public intimidation. This harmful transfer has no precedent in American historical past, erodes belief between the American navy and the general public, and pulls our servicemembers away from their important function in preventing wildfires and tackling the fentanyl epidemic,” mentioned Lawyer Basic Bonta. “Right this moment, 300 federalized California Nationwide Guard members stay instruments within the President’s sport, and the Trump Administration seeks to advance the argument that there must be no limits on what federal troops can do. However that’s not what our legislation permits. We start trial with the details and the legislation on our facet – and we stay up for making our case in courtroom.”
At trial, California will argue that the Trump Administration’s choice to embed federalized California Nationwide Guard members and Marines inside a home law-enforcement company — the federal Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) company— and to deploy them broadly all through the state, all whereas asserting there are not any limits on what these federal troops can do, is unprecedented and unlawful. In making an attempt to justify the unjustifiable, the Trump Administration ignores each the clear exams that courts have established over many years for deciphering the Posse Comitatus Act and figuring out what conduct violates the Act, in addition to profession navy officers’ understanding of that Act.
There are additionally allegations that Trump’s actions in California had a detrimental influence on morale:
Three completely different advocacy organisations representing navy households mentioned that they had heard from dozens of affected service members who expressed discomfort about being drawn right into a home policing operation outdoors their regular discipline of operations. The teams mentioned they’ve heard no countervailing opinions.
“The sentiment throughout the board proper now’s that deploying navy pressure in opposition to our personal communities isn’t the type of nationwide safety we signed up for,” mentioned Sarah Streyder of the Safe Households Initiative, which represents the pursuits of navy spouses, youngsters and veterans.
“Households are scared not only for their family members’ security, though that’s a giant concern, but in addition for what their service is getting used to justify.”
Chris Purdy of the Chamberlain Community, whose said mission is to “mobilize and empower veterans to guard democracy”, mentioned he had heard related issues from half a dozen nationwide guard members. “Morale is just not nice, is the quote I preserve listening to,” he mentioned.
It’s deeply ironic that California is basing its case on the Posse Comatitus Act, an artifact of the top of Reconstruction:
To make sure that racist teams such because the Ku Klux Klan wouldn’t intimidate Republican voters, Federal troops had been stationed all through polling locations within the South. Within the closest election in historical past, the Southern-favoured Democrat Samuel Tilden misplaced to Republican candidate Rutherford Hayes by a single electoral faculty vote. The presence of federal troops throughout the election made many Southerners see the navy supervision as a tyrannical use of pressure by Republicans to stay in energy. The continuous escalation of tensions between the troopers and Southerners led to the Compromise of 1877, whereby the newly-elected Hayes was pressured to withdraw the military from the South. Not happy with this withdrawal, in 1878 the Democrats launched the Posse Comitatus Act.
Whereas the Democrats managed the Home following the 1874 midterm election, the Republicans nonetheless held a majority throughout the Senate. Surprisingly, many Republicans had been sympathetic to the Act. When introducing the invoice, Consultant William Kimmel of Maryland skilfully depicted it as one other instance of People rejecting the influences of totalitarianism. He aligned his place with the Founding Fathers’ fears of a standing military and its potential to implement martial legislation by drawing reference to Washington’s use of a civilian militia as an alternative of the Military to quell the 1794 Whisky Revolt, which was applauded by the Congress. Kimmel satisfied many Republicans that this evidenced a historical past of the federal authorities disapproving the usage of the navy for civilian legislation enforcement. The Act stipulated that the usage of the navy as a posse comitatus was criminalised except expressly authorised by an Act of Congress or the Structure. The usage of the navy to fight civil riot beneath the 1807 Riot Act was included as a statutory exception. President Hayes, satisfied that the thirteenth, 14th and fifteenth Amendments would guarantee black suffrage within the South, signed the Posse Comitatus Act into ratification in June 1878.
Not surprisingly, the Posse Comatitus Act has main loopholes and limitations:
One vital loophole is the District of Columbia Nationwide Guard. Whereas all different Nationwide Guards are commanded by their state or territorial governors, the DC Guard falls beneath the president’s direct management always. Though it could actually act as a federal pressure, the Division of Justice has lengthy claimed it could actually additionally function as a non-federal “militia” that’s not constrained by the Posse Comitatus Act. This implies presidents can theoretically use the DC Guard for legislation enforcement every time they select.
One other loophole is Part 502(f) of Title 32 of the U.S. Code, which permits the Nationwide Guard to hold out federal missions on the request of the president or secretary of protection whereas remaining beneath state management, thus bypassing the Posse Comitatus Act. Whereas the remainder of Part 502 is principally used for coaching missions, there are not any standards limiting what sorts of missions Subsection f can be utilized for. The Trump administration exploited this license a number of years in the past when it invited Nationwide Guard troops from 11 states into DC to suppress protests following the homicide of George Floyd. This unprecedented motion was completed with out invoking the Riot Act, because the president may merely ask sympathetic state governors to present the orders on his behalf.
To make issues worse, the Posse Comitatus Act lacks an efficient enforcement mechanism. The legislation is a legal statute, but there’s no actual menace of prosecution for violating it in observe. Nobody has ever been convicted for violating the Posse Comitatus Act, and solely two folks have ever been prosecuted — each greater than 140 years in the past.
There has already been some fascinating testimony within the trial, through Democracy Docket:
The second day of trial once more noticed testimony from Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, the pinnacle of Activity Pressure 51, which oversaw the Nationwide Guard troops and Marines concerned within the navy mission to Los Angeles.
Sherman mentioned troopers got coaching supplies on Posse Comitatus. These supplies included an inventory of particular actions prohibited by the act: Safety patrols, site visitors management, crowd management and riot management.
Although the act prohibits members of the navy from finishing up sure actions, Sherman mentioned there was a “constitutional exception” that permitted such actions beneath sure circumstances.
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After stressing that he’s not a lawyer, Sherman mentioned Division of Protection attorneys suggested him that the navy was allowed to hold out prohibited actions as a result of such acts had been “in line” with Trump’s order for troops to guard federal property and personnel.
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The recommendation Sherman mentioned he acquired seems to derive from an expansive controversial concept of govt authority known as the “protecting energy.” It asserts that presidents have inherent constitutional authority to make use of the navy to guard federal property, personnel and capabilities and that such actions can’t violate Posse Comitatus.The speculation, which isn’t explicitly discovered within the Structure however is as an alternative a authorized interpretation of the Take Care Clause, served as the premise of Trump’s deployment of Nationwide Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles.
Politico had extra on Sherman’s testimony:
Essentially the most revelatory testimony of the day got here from Sherman, who initially commanded the Guard troops Trump deployed to Los Angeles. He recalled his opposition to a request by immigration authorities for navy assist throughout an operation slated for Father’s Day within the metropolis’s MacArthur Park.
Intelligence, Sherman recalled, confirmed a minimal menace to federal immigration brokers, and the proposed operation would have despatched navy autos by the middle of the park. However when he expressed misgivings, Gregory Bovino, the chief patrol agent of the Customs and Border Patrol’s El Centro sector — who has taken on a number one function within the Los Angeles immigration crackdown — pushed again strongly, Sherman recalled.
Requested by a lawyer for California if Bovino questioned Sherman’s loyalty to the U.S. over the problem, Sherman answered merely “sure” and didn’t elaborate.
In the meantime in Texas, Trump acolyte Lawyer Basic (and U.S. Senate candidate) Ken Paxton is elevating the stakes for Texas Democrats making an attempt to withstand redistricting:
Texas Lawyer Basic Ken Paxton on Tuesday requested a Tarrant County choose to jail former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, in one other escalation in Republicans’ broader effort to place an finish to Texas Democrats’ walkout over a brand new congressional map.
Paxton sued O’Rourke and his political group, Powered by Folks, final week, arguing that the group was deceptively fundraising for and illegally supporting Texas Democrats’ walkout. Tarrant County District Decide Megan Fahey rapidly granted Paxton’s request to quickly block O’Rourke and Powered by Folks from fundraising for Democrats or spending cash to cowl their bills.
On Tuesday, Paxton claimed that O’Rourke had violated that non permanent injunction at a Fort Value rally Saturday, when he advised the group, “There are not any refs on this sport, fuck the foundations.”
In accordance with a video of the occasion, O’Rourke appeared to say that phrase after urging the group to assist retaliatory redistricting in different blue states — not in relation to the injunction.
Paxton and Presidential aspirant Governor Greg Abbott have beforehand sought to have quorum breaking Democrats thrown out of workplace.
The Ettingermentum publication explains a few of the context of the unprecedented nationwide redistricting battle and the way Dems may strike again:
…nothing even remotely like what we’re seeing now has ever occurred earlier than. Traditionally talking, mid-decade redistricting nearly at all times solely occurs on account of courtroom orders. When it has occurred on a purely partisan foundation, it has by no means been on a systemic, nationally-organized scale involving tit-for-tat guarantees of retaliation. Due to this, the mainstream media—at all times inadequate in its protection of gerrymandering even in one of the best of instances—has to this point been incapable of protecting these speedy developments in a coherent means.
How Democrats Might Strike Again:
- California: 5-9 seats, however provided that voters approve of a constitutional referendum.
- New York: 3 seats or extra, however not till 2028.
- Maryland: One seat, however potential authorized challenges make a brand new map unlikely.
- New Jersey: 1-2 seats, however it could already be too late.
- Illinois: 1-3 seats, however one is probably the most practical.
- Minimal instantly achievable positive factors earlier than 2026: Six seats.
- Most potential positive factors earlier than 2026: Fifteen seats.
He additionally notes that the Texas Democrats have already given up:
Democrats imagine they’ve achieved their mission by killing the primary particular session and by elevating nationwide consciousness concerning the mid-decade redistricting effort.
It’s unclear which day they are going to be in Austin on the Capitol, however they stress that they’ll push for Hill Nation flooding reduction to be the precedence.
After our preliminary reporting on-line and on tv, a spokesperson for the Texas Democratic Caucus despatched the next assertion to ABC Information:
“Members are nonetheless assessing their methods going ahead and are in a non-public assembly to make choices about future plans presently,” he wrote. “If and when Texas Home Democrats breaking quorum determine to go house is squarely depending on the actions the Governor, Speaker, and Texas Republicans in cost make with regard to prioritizing flood victims over redistricting that hurts Texans.”
That type of sums up the state of affairs in a nutshell.
Trump and the GOP are aggressively pushing Constitutional limits whereas Democrats are placing up a largely performative opposition.
Regardless of Trump’s imploding reputation, the Democrats are even much less standard and in contrast to Trump, don’t have any competing imaginative and prescient of governance.
Count on the slide right into a post-Constitutional order to proceed.
I’ll give Ralph Nader the final phrase, if solely as a result of his strident doomerism appears a bit over-the-top:
The approaching higher risks from Trump will come when he pushes his lawless, dictatorial envelope to this point, so furiously, so outrageously, that it turns his GOP valets in Congress and the GOP-dominated US Supreme Courtroom in opposition to him. Add plunging polls, a stagflation financial system, and impeachment, and removing from workplace would turn into a political necessity for the GOP in 2026 and past. In 1974, the far lesser Watergate transgressions by President Richard Nixon resulted in Republican Senators’ demanding Difficult Dick’s resignation from workplace.
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If Trump had been to be impeached and faraway from workplace, would he attempt to keep in workplace? Right here is the place an actual constitutional explosion can happen. He must be escorted from the White Home by US Marshals who’re beneath the path of toady Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi. The Supreme Courtroom has held that the Structure grants “the only Energy” to strive impeachments within the Senate and nowhere else. Thus, the courts would offer no treatment to a lawless president wanting to remain in energy.
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Little restraint on lawless Trump from the Congress and the Supreme Courtroom, and solely feeble, cowardly responses by the flailing Democratic Celebration (and the Bar Associations for that matter) up to now, make for the specter of violent anarchy and terror.Trump has fatalistic traits. Armageddon shapes his final worldview. Ponder that for a dictator along with his finger on greater than the nuclear set off.
Right here’s hoping Ralph’s overstating his case.