DC urges appeals court to end yearlong National Guard deployment in capital

A D.C. Circuit panel heard arguments Wednesday on whether to uphold a lower court order ending the thirteen-month National Guard deployment in Washington, which began without a request from Mayor Muriel Bowser and was ruled unlawful by a federal judge in November 2025. The deployment has continued under stays from Trump-appointed judges while the appeal proceeded, with troops now stationed in metro stations, outside an elementary school, and near ballot drop boxes ahead of the midterms.

D.C.'s attorney argued the mission has drifted far past crime deterrence into normalizing a military presence on American streets, pointing to troops detaining suspects and executing warrants. The Justice Department countered that the deployment is a 'striking success' and within presidential authority, though Judge Rogers pushed back hard on the idea that a president can simply declare crime out of control and call out the Guard at will.

A Niskanen Center report found a 24% drop in opportunistic property crime but no dent in the city's worst violence, at a cost of roughly $185 million in the first five months alone, or $607 per Guard member per day.

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