President Trump and his administration chalked up another court win on Wednesday, as the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order granting the administration’s request to stay a lower court injunction that enjoined the Trump administration from deploying or requesting the deployment of any members of the National Guard in the District of Columbia.
President Trump issued a memorandum in August directing the Secretary of Defense to mobilize the District of Columbia’s National Guard to address violent crime and to ensure public safety within the District, and to work with state governors to deploy additional National Guard units from the states to the nation’s capital.
In September, D.C. filed suit against President Trump, the Department of Defense, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, the U.S. Army, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll, the Department of Justice, Attorney General Pam Bondi, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Director of the U.S. Marshals Service, Gadyaces S. Serralta, alleging that the deployment of both the D.C. Guard and State Guards violates the Administrative Procedure Act. D.C. subsequently moved for a preliminary injunction in the case.
D.C. District Court Judge Jia Cobb issued a preliminary injunction in November, but also stayed her ruling for 21 days to afford the administration time to lodge an appeal — which it promptly did.
The Circuit Court of Appeals initially granted an administrative stay (on December 4), and with Wednesday’s order, dissolves that stay and instead has issued a formal stay pending appeal. Of note, the decision itself is per curiam, but accompanied by a statement authored by Judge Patricia Millett (an Obama appointee) in which Judges Neomi Rao and Gregory Katsas (both Trump appointees) concurred.