Attorney General Anthony G. Brown led a coalition today of 24 attorneys general and governors in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in support of Illinois against President Trump’s unlawful, unconstitutional, and undemocratic deployment of the National Guard without approval from the state’s governor. Attorney General Brown says the President’s actions break the law and threaten one of America’s most important principles — that the military must remain under civilian control — while also threatening state sovereignty and core constitutional principles of federalism.
“President Trump’s use of the National Guard to patrol American cities without the consent of state leaders is an outrageous abuse of power based on politics, not public safety,” said Attorney General Brown. “This is the fourth time in four months that the President has deployed the Guard to a city without approval from its leaders. Without intervention from the courts, this unconstitutional, unlawful, and un-American politicizing of our military could become the new normal.”