Washington, D.C.’s lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops poses a “conundrum” for the courts, as city leaders remain split on the presence of federal forces, Judge Andrew Napolitano told Newsmax Friday.
“It depends who you ask,” Napolitano said on Newsmax’s “National Report,” noting that even though D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb has called the Guard’s presence a “military occupation,” Mayor Muriel Bowser has welcomed the additional support.
In his filing, Schwalb argued that deploying the National Guard in Washington, D.C., is “not only unnecessary and unwanted, but it’s also dangerous and harmful to the district and its residents.”
Napolitano said Schwalb’s claims are “a bit of a stretch, because D.C. is not a state. D.C. is owned by the federal government, and the ability of the feds to micromanage this is significant.”
The federal government, he added, “could rescind the Home Rule Act tomorrow. That would remove the mayor and the city council, and it would put D.C. under the direct control of Congress. They could pass it to the president if they want. All that would be constitutional. Obviously, that can’t happen with a state.”
Meanwhile, the lawsuit will hinge on who sets public policy for the capital, Napolitano said, as D.C.’s “unique legal status further complicates the matter.”
Napolitano also weighed in on a separate case involving Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center, after an appeals court recently reversed a lower court ruling that had sought to shut it down over environmental concerns.
“This is a bit of a novel ruling, but I doubt if the Supreme Court is going to interfere with it,” he said. “The Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which sits in Atlanta but covers Florida, ruled that because Alligator Alcatraz is just leased by the feds, but not owned by them, owned by the state, the federal climate laws don’t apply.”
He noted that while the facility will remain open, the district court must still address pollution claims.
“Now, this federal judge who heard the case said raw sewage was going into the Everglades,” said Napolitano. “Nobody wants that to happen. There must be some way to stop it without shutting down the facility. So even though the ruling has been reversed, it’s been sent back to her, the federal district judge, to find a way to address the climate issues without shutting down the facility.”
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