Professor of Law Emeritus William C. Banks spoke with the Associated Press about the current U.S. Court of Appeals case testing the president’s power to deploy National Guard troops to Washington, D.C.
Banks said D.C. might have a slim argument under its Home Rule Act of 1973, questioning whether National Guard units can be deployed to the city when it isn’t authorized by local law.
But, he said, outside of that argument, “there is no overarching federal principle that would bail out the district in this case.”
Because D.C. is not a state and because the president is commander in chief, there’s a “tremendous amount of leeway and discretion for the president” to control or delegate control of the local National Guard and out-of-state units, Banks said.