Appeals Court Pauses D.C. National Guard End Order

A federal appeals court in Washington on Thursday temporarily allowed President Donald Trump to maintain more than 2,000 National Guard troops in the nation's capital, pausing a lower court's order that had deemed the deployment unlawful and required its end by December 11.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued the administrative stay in response to a request from the Trump administration. A three-judge panel emphasized that the decision provided time to review a motion for a longer-term pause but did not address the underlying legal merits of the case. The ruling halts an injunction from U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, who on November 20 found that the president lacked authority under Article II of the Constitution to deploy the D.C. National Guard for crime deterrence without a request from local authorities. Historical precedent, Cobb wrote, supported limits on such uses of the force.

The troops have been stationed in Washington since August as part of an initiative to address urban crime and support federal immigration operations. The deployment includes about 900 members of the D.C. National Guard, with the remainder drawn from at least nine states, including...